


Fractured Morals

by KiastiTai



Series: Colliding With Others [1]
Category: Colliding with Others, Sanders Sides
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Crossover, Gen, I make a universe specifically to crossover, Injury, Me being a jerk, Violence, ill add more tags as i go on, panic/anxiety attacks, poor little beans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-07-18 11:23:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 19,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16117394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiastiTai/pseuds/KiastiTai
Summary: Tai is the ringleader of her friends, a small group of girls in their freshman year. When she gets hurt, she wonders if she’s fit to lead. Little did she know other things would haunt her worse, quite soon.Ray is a pro gamer, and loves the outdoors. Then a tragic accident happens, leaving her short a forearm. But that’s not the only thing coming out of the catastrophe.Saga is smart and cool, the reason in her group of friends. But a single slip, and it all comes crashing down. A slip that can only lead to bad things, right?Asha is a bubbly, optimistic person. But what happens when tragedy after tragedy strikes? Will she be forced to reveal her biggest secret?Vee is an anxious mess, hiding her insomnia from her friends. But how long can she hide her real powers, when they come and explode into her life?PS the sides don't come in until chapter 11 until then it's just a bunch of character development.





	1. A Start

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings, start of panic attack, mention of injury.  
> This is my first work, hope you enjoy!

Vee paced the room, over and over and over. Her mind raced, each scenario worse than the last. _'She might have broken a bone or lost an arm or put on those lifesaver things or she might be dead or-'_  
Vee was pulled to an abrupt stop by a person behind her. "Vee, calm down. You're hyperventilating," A familiar voice said soothingly. Saga. "Come on. You know she'll be fine. Breathe in, and breathe out."  
Saga was right. Vee was breathing shallow, ragged breaths. No wonder she was over thinking again, without enough oxygen. Vee took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  
"Sorry, Saga," she murmured. "But Tai should have been more careful! Those rocks had handholds, yes, but she went too far." Vee took another shuddering breath. "I'm just worried-" but her voice cracked and stopped working.  
"Hey, it's okay, Vee, it wasn't your fault." Vee felt a different hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Asha giving her a bright smile behind her countless freckles. "Tai couldn't have gotten more than a concussion at worst, a few scratches. She landed on a bush, and it wasn't from very high up. She'll be fine."  
"I-I know you guys are right…" Vee trailed off, then sighed. "I just can’t help but worry."  
"You think we don’t know?" Another voice said. "Vee, you’re freaking out the nurses." Ray gestured to the reception desk, where, indeed, a nurse stared at Vee. "Besides, we should all get something to eat. They said Tai won’t be out for awhile, and the In’n’Out is across the street."  
Vee appreciated the offer, but hesitated. They would have to cross the street, and that would mean risking getting run over, and leaving Tai here-  
_Stop it. You aren’t getting anywhere by doing that._ She took a deep breathe. "Okay. Before I change my mind and/or panic."  
Ray, Saga and Asha grinned at each other. It wasn’t uncommon for Vee to say those words, if rephrased. Vee might have been an anxious mess most of the time, but she tried not to let that stop her from having a good time with the other four.  
The four teenage girls got up and left the hospital to grab some food. As usual, the three up front chatted away, with Vee chiming in every once in a while. Currently, the topic was on the hiking trip a few hours ago.  
Ray started up. "Honestly, I think that was definitely worth it, even if Tai got hurt."  
Saga followed up. "It was quite interesting, I didn’t think we would really get to see so many different animals and plants."  
Asha spoke then. "I wish I could have taken that squirrel home, it was so cute!"  
Ray scoffed, "as if your Mom would let you!"  
Suddenly the three were pulled to a stop by Vee. "GUYS, slow down, you’re about to get run over!" It was true. The three had been too distracted to notice the sidewalk ending. They had nearly walked right into the road.  
Vee breathed out a sigh of relief. "You guys would be dead a hundred times over if I weren’t here…"  
The group looked at one another, then broke out in laughter. "Too right, Vee, too right." Ray chuckled.  
The four waited until the walking light flashed on, and crossed, quite quickly for the sake of Vee. That didn’t stop them from talking.  
"As I was saying, I was really looking forward to seeing the pond, I’m kinda disappointed we didn’t get to, but we can always try again later, minus the rock climbing…" Saga said, continuing the conversation.  
"Aww, c’mon, who doesn’t want a concussion?" Ray smirked, elbowing Saga.  
By this time, they had crossed, and all of them raised their hand. They broke out into giggles, and continued the silly chatter until they came to In’n’Out.  
Vee looked at the building. She hated social interaction. "Can we go through the drive-thru without a car?" she inquired.  
The others hid their smiles. "Don’t think so, Vee," Asha said, bringing a hand onto the younger’s shoulder. "Most of us aren’t made of metal, so I don’t think it counts."  
"Hey!" Saga called out. "I am not a robot! I still have emotions, you know." She crossed her arms, pretending to be offended. "Now come on, the longer we stall, the longer Tai is alone."  
So the four friends walked into the fast-food restaurant, ordered their food (Vee with quite a bit of stuttering), and left with burgers, fries, and ice cream in plastic bags. They crossed the street back to the hospital and ate outside. Asha had been the one to point out the fact that the nurses and doctors would probably not enjoy the burgers with their animal-style sauce, since it was very messy. They nearly, however, got salad from the Fry’s nearby for Tai, but Vee pointed out that chewing so much wouldn’t help a concussion. They settled on some canned soup.  
Once they finished their meal the four freshmen headed back inside the hospital. Vee picked up the bag containing the canned soup and followed.  
So, obviously, something had to go wrong.  
No, not really. The lady at the reception desk was called. Once she put down the phone, she called the four girls over.  
"You are Tai’s friends, right?" They nodded. "You can go see her now. She’s in the third door off the right."  
Ray, Saga, Asha and Vee looked at each other, thoroughly relieved. They hurried to the room the lady had indicated and pushed the door open.  
Tai was sitting up, looking bored out of her mind, and had gauze wrapping around her forehead, along with various Band-Aids. Other than that, she looked to be fine, and her bored expression was replaced with happiness at seeing her younger friends.  
" _Finally!_ " Tai exclaimed. "I’ve been awake the entire time, they wouldn’t let me sleep, and I’m bored out of my mind…" she focused on the can of soup in Vee’s hand. "And hungry."  
Ray snickered. "Yeah, it’s for you. But we’re not allowed to give it to you until your out of this place."  
Tai was about to respond when a doctor came in. "Tai, here’s the medication. Once a day, okay?"  
" _Fiiiiiiine._ " Tai sighs dramatically.  
"Your free to go, then. Be careful, and no electronics until tomorrow."  
"YES!" Tai kicked off the sheet and got up, wincing slightly.  
"Which of you lives closest to her?" The doctor inquired at us.  
Vee raised her hand. "I’m a couple houses down from her, so me."  
"The rest of you may be excused." The doctor looked at the other freshmen, clearly telling them to leave. They wearily obliged. Asha stole a glance at Vee, worried. All of them knew that Vee wasn’t anti-social, but had social anxiety. However, Vee gave a thumbs up, and the others left the room.  
"So…" Vee said awkwardly. "What is this about?"  
"Well, I didn’t want to worry Tai, but she does indeed have a concussion, a bad one. Would you keep her from doing anything… reckless?"  
Vee looked stunned. "I do that on a daily basis. I-I can do that."  
"Thank you. Have a nice day." The doctor gave Vee a bit of paperwork, opened the door for Vee, and she followed her friends, finding them waiting for her in the lobby, various looks of concern and worry on their faces.  
None of them liked leaving Vee alone, no matter where. _Not since it happened._


	2. Tai's Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next day, they have school.  
> Mondays suck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Old memes  
> Vee's POV

"You sure that you’re okay?" Asha asked once more.  
Vee sighed. "Why are you worried so much about me, Tai’s the one with a concussion!"  
"I didn’t even fall that hard." Tai whined.  
Ray rolled her eyes. "You could have been stabbed in the heart and you would say, ‘it’s just a scratch, I’m fine!’" The five laughed. It was true.  
Asha wasn’t distracted. "Vee, you sure? You came out and looked real weird, like-"  
She was interrupted by the increasing yells of Tai and Ray play-arguing.  
"I _totally_ played that better than you. I’m willing to bet 20 bucks I get the spot!" Ray boasted.  
"Oh yeah? _You_ screwed up the most important line of auditions, I did it way better, I’m definitely getting the spot." Tai retorted.  
"Bet you 20 bucks you’re wrong. And a pack of Skittles."  
"Deal."  
Vee was glad for the disruption. Although she very much cared for her friends, she couldn’t tell anybody how bad the concussion was, and how fragile Tai was. Not only was she told by the doctor not to tell, and how bad it was, she had picked up the paperwork. The front page read:  
_Name: Tai Lavina_  
Age: 14 years, 5 months  
Injury: Major Head Concussion, bruises  & scratches along right side, miniscule fractures in right forearm bones  
Cause of Injury: Fell from rock face onto bush whilst rock climbing  
Medication: har1hhs7si- take for ½ month, once per day - headache relievers  
Expected Time of Full Recovery: 3 weeks  
Side Effects until Recovery: Recklessness, headaches, fragility  
Vee was worried, to say the least.  
Late at night  
Vee was sitting in her bed, turning over the paperwork, reading it even though it was drilled into her mind. She had taken Tai home about an hour ago with the others. Once Tai was inside, she had told the other freshmen that the doctor had placed Tai under Vee’s responsibility until she was recovered. Nothing more.  
The others looked at Vee, surprised. However, it was late, the sun was down, and soon they all parted. It wasn’t that they were far away from each other, they were all in the same neighborhood, but they had to split up, leaving Vee alone to soak in her confused thoughts.  
She was beyond worried, knowing how badly Tai was hurt, when even Tai herself didn’t know. Add that to her usual heightened anxiety over practically everything and anything, top it off with the fact that, due to her insomnia, she wouldn’t get to sleep easily, and therefore would be thinking for awhile, she was well on her way to an anxiety attack.  
However, she was getting quite good at focusing on the positives to neutralize the negatives. _Tai is alive and recovering,_ Vee reminded herself. _She already made a bet with Ray. The food at In’n’Out was good and I enjoyed this morning._  
With those thoughts in her mind, reeling off over and over, she eventually made her way to sleep.  
Morning  
Her alarm clock rang.  
School.  
Of course, she had school.  
Tai didn’t, obviously, but Vee, Ray, Asha and Saga still did. Vee got up, rubbing her eyes. How much sleep did she get last night? Two hours? Maybe three.  
She flopped a hand over the LED clock, shutting it up. Vee guessed that the bags under her eyes were gonna be darker than yesterday. So, of course, she had to go up and check.  
Yes, they were.  
After getting dressed, she shoved enough makeup on to hide the bags’ darkness. Then she hurriedly ate a bowl of cereal and dashed out the door. She had a half an hour left until school, but she needed to go by Tai’s place to get her to take the pills she was given yesterday.  
She arrived, panting, at Tai’s house. Knowing that it would offend the family if any of Tai’s friends knocked and awaited permission to enter ("You’re all always welcome!" Tai’s mother had said), she barged through the door, trudged up the stairs, and opened Tai’s bedroom door.  
"Tai." She was still snoring away.  
"Tai," Vee shook the elder girl, frowning that she didn’t wake.  
"TAI!"  
The golden-blonde-headed girl shot awake. "Who’s callin’ m’name?" She slurred, half-asleep.  
Vee placed her hand on Tai’s shoulder. "It’s just me, Tai. You need to get up and take the pills."  
Tai burrowed deeper into her pillow. "Don’ wanna get up," she mumbled. "Tired."  
Vee rolled her eyes. "Eat this for me, they’re chew and swallow, then you can go back to bed."  
Tai blindly groped for the pills on her bedside table, grabbed on, and ate it. "Done. Now go ‘way, Vee."  
Vee drew away and smirked. "Of course, Sleeping Cutie."  
The elder threw a pillow in response. Vee dodged and left, running to get to school on time.  
School  
She made it with minutes to spare.  
Of course, Saga scolded her, Asha was more relieved than anything, and Ray smirked, knowing how much of a pain a tired Tai could be. "C’mon, Saga, any longer of a lecture and you’ll be a college professor."  
They made their way to their first class, which they all had together. Art.  
As they made their way, Vee thought, _why don’t we have homeroom like regular kids?_ But it didn’t matter. They didn’t need the wake-up call, not those four. Ray was always able to “conjure” up coffee for each of them, and as long as the got their work done, they could have anything in any class. Vee, however, got hot chocolate instead of coffee. She didn’t have sugar rushes, for some odd reason, nor sugar crashes. So, since it was what she preferred, she got hot chocolate.  
She sipped the carmelly hot chocolate as she followed the other three freshmen into the art room. The teacher greeted them as they took their usual spots crowded around a few easels in the back. Saga sighed and went up to inform the teacher, Ms. Nickel, why Tai wasn’t there. After a quick exchange, Saga was back, and Vee knew that the others saw her practically shrinking into her dark purple jacket. It was, after all, technically her job to tell the teachers, the doctor had said so. But, in reality, she could hardly join into her friends’ conversations, much less tell somebody she barely knew, "Oh, yeah, my best friend Tai got a concussion."  
Saga saw Vee’s embarrassment and looked at her, no pity in her eyes, just understanding. "Vee, it's okay, the doctor never said we couldn't help. I'll inform her teachers, I'm in all her classes except Drama. Miss Drama Queen can help with that."  
(Offended noises from Miss Drama Queen Ray.)  
Asha joined in. "And I'll help you make her meals, her parents are gone most of the time, and I'm not too far away."  
Even Ray managed to give a couples of pennies to donate. "I'll help her with whatever acting she misses out on. She'll need it if she thinks lead role is hers."  
Vee smiled gratefully at the other teenagers. "Thanks," she mumbled.  
The rest of the day went on quite normal, minus the fact that Vee still had to grab the missing assignments of Tai’s from each teacher, but she did reasonably well. Well, for her usual standards.  
Vee finished get last class of the day, drama with Ray, on most occasions Tai, and a few other mutual friends, Sammy, “Kantai” (long story), “Sallad” (another long story), and Savannah. Although Vee did have stage fright, she was good at voice acting, and an amazing techie. Therefore, she spent a lot of the drama classes doing demonic voices and messing with everyone's vocal recordings and special effects. It was her favorite class, and the only one she felt comfortable in no matter who she talked to. Honestly, everybody in the class was so positive and cheerful, Vee couldn't help but follow suit as best as her anxiety would allow.  
But even so, she left worried, not just for Tai, though. Ray had acted poorly, not at all like her usual self, and was displaying all the signs Vee knew so well of a lack of sleep.  
"Ray?" Vee looked at the elder cautiously. "You look tired. You don't okay?"  
" ‘M fine." The drama queen said, all too unconvincing. The younger girl looked at the older, one eyebrow raised. "Okay. I'm not as good as possible, Tai has me worried. I don't think the doctor told us everything. She winced when she got up. There were a ton of Band-Aids. And I saw her fall. Her arm didn’t hit the bush with the rest of her. I was sure it broke.” She took a deep breath. “And all of us saw how distressed you looked when you came to school.”  
Vee looked at Ray in surprise. Expanding her vocabulary wasn’t something she did often. “I-I’m worried, too. But I’m sure she’ll be fine. I’m sure of it,” Vee spoke with as much confidence as she could, hoping to convince herself as well as Ray. “She just needs some rest. I will admit, however,” Vee lowered her voice, “that her concussion is worse than the doctor said. Not too bad, she can still eat okay, but she won’t be going to school for awhile.”  
“Hey!” Vee and Ray jumped at the voice, and saw Asha waving from across the parking lot with Saga beside her. “C’mon! I wanna stop by Tai’s house before we go home!”  
The two drama kids grinned at each other, then raced to the other freshmen. Of course, the ever-athletic Ray beat Vee, but that was expected.  
The four friends made their way two Tai’s home, chatting and teasing as usual. As always, they never knocked, instead having Asha shout, “Ms. Lavina! It’s Asha, Vee, Ray, and Saga! We’ve come to check on Tai.”  
The response yell from the kitchen was, “Somebody convince her to get out of bed! A few bruises and a headache isn’t gonna keep her from my brownie attacks and fruit invasions!”  
The girls snickered. Saga yelled, “Will do!” back and the four went up the stairs. Ray smirked and put a finger to her lips, telling them to be quiet. Vee immediately knew what was going on and started panicking silently. It must have showed in her eyes, because Saga and Asha took one look at Ray and Vee with realization growing on their expressions.  
Saga whispered, “Ray, don’t-”  
Ray burst into the room, yelling, “NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN-”  
Tai bolted awake. “Gah! Ray! Vee! People!” Tai looked around with a startled expression. Her expression softened upon looking at her four friends, then sharpened and was set on fire. “BY ALL THINGS I CARE FOR RAY I SWEAR I’LL CUT YOUR THROAT OPEN AND FEED YOUR VOCAL CORDS TO MY CAT.”  
Ray took a step back. Tai was serious when she swore on _everything._ Saga sighed and placed a hand on Tai’s back. “Tai, calm down. We just came to check on you.” She made a point to look at Ray. “If in _unconventional_ ways. Have you eaten today?”  
Tai groaned and rubbed her head. “No. I’m really hungry.” Her stomach growled to emphasize her words. “What time is it?”  
Asha nearly winced in sympathy for the slightly older girl. “It’s 4:30. You missed school.”  
“What?” She sounded completely in disbelief. “But- it’s Monday- Friday’s the test-”  
Asha shushed Tai. “Vee gathered the homework for you. Saga got notes, too. You’ll be fine.”  
They all jumped at the voice from downstairs. “Tai’s awake, I can tell, get your butts down here and force feed her if you need to!” Ms. Lavina called out.  
Tai groaned, and Vee couldn’t tell if it was in annoyance or pain from her headache. “Coming, Mom.”  
After a few minutes of trying to figure how to get Tai down the stairs, Vee pointed out it wouldn’t be a problem and they headed down. Tai’s mother was in the dining room, a stern but warm look on her face and food spread out in front of her.  
“I know they don’t serve lunch on Mondays,” the mother stated (and all the girls shared looks that said, “how does she know, and what would we do without her?”). “So I’m feeding you all. Brownies are for the end. And,” Ms. Lavina added, “I want to know what happened while you were hiking yesterday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm just saying now, I had a weird thing in real life where the events of this story basically predicted what happened, except no school. Up to Chapter 5


	3. Explanation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They explain what happened during the hike

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of injury, mentions of pretending others are gay for teasing, mention of knife, mentions of alcohol  
> Ugh, just a bit of a filler chapter

“So we come across these rocks, and Ray wants to climb them, right? So, Tai’s obviously not having any of that, she says, ‘I’ll go first, to make sure it’s safe.’ So we all step back, and Tai shakes off Vee, who’s trying to stop her, and she starts climbing.” Asha rambles.  
“So then Tai gets pretty high up, five feet or so, and calls out, ‘It’s okay, Ray!’ So Ray starts to go over, but then Tai slips and falls into the bush.” Saga finished off.  
“It’s my fault.” Ray said thickly. “I shouldn’t have let Tai go up. And when she fell, I froze, and I saw that even though she hit a bush it crumpled and she fell on her right side badly.”  
“But then you unfroze,” Asha argued. “And then you and Saga carried her back. And she’s fine now.”  
Tai looked over. “Not _fine_ , per say. But better.”  
Of course, she _definitely_ wasn’t okay, her head was throbbing, her right side ached with bruises, and her right arm was numb with pain, constantly. _Thank goodness I’m left-handed,_ she thought. _The others would have noticed by now if I weren’t. Then again, Vee’s looking at me kinda strange…_  
Tai realized the others were talking again and quickly turned her focus back.  
“Saga, your the best at teaching, you should help Tai learn stuff when we go home. Besides,” Asha teased, “I think you two could use some alone time.”  
Saga sputtered a protest, while the other girls laughed. It was common for them to tease each other about inter-dating, even though none of them were interested in dating.  
Then Vee noticed that Tai wasn't acting outraged like she usually did. Tai realized she was quite obvious, staring at the wall for so long like that.  
“That was a good meal, Mom, but I'm really tired right now. I'm gonna go back to bed.” _It's not a lie, just a half truth._  
The others looked at her oddly, but said their goodbyes and left. All except for Vee. “It's my responsibility for you right now, so I'm gonna kill two birds with one knife,” she claimed. The whole _knife_ business was an inside joke, but we'll get to that later.  
“And…?”  
“Watch you and get my homework done.” That was all the conversation could hold before Tai’s head throbbed especially painfully a few times, and causing her to hold back a whine of pain.  
Vee must have seen her expression, because her gaze softened. “Look, I personally know how annoying it is. But honestly? It'll help in the long run.” Vee paused. “And, by the way, I know that headache is worse than the doctor told you. I can tell.”  
Tai wanted to fire back with her usual retort, but hesitated. She had _been_ there when Vee had gone through this, or at least one of the times. Vee _had_ gone through this, she _knew_ how irritating being watched over by her friends was, and she _definitely_ knew how annoying a bad concussion was.  
And, not counting all of this, Tai suspected she didn’t have it the worst. She remembered when Ray had fallen off the stage and broken her arm - and Tai winced. Vee had blamed herself for not catching Ray before she fell. She probably blamed herself for not stopping Tai from getting hurt as well.  
“You okay?” Vee interrupted her thoughts. Tai mentally shook herself out of it. “You’re not acting like yourself. You usually would have said something like, ‘I would only do it for the sake of you guys,’ really dramatically, or you would have said, ‘I still don’t need this, I’m too good for it!’” She paused. “I guess being dramatic isn’t easy with a headache. I wouldn’t know.”  
Tai picked up on the joke. “You mean how you didn’t see when Ray got a headache ‘cause she’s such a good actress?”  
Vee made some exaggerated offended noises, and Tai thought that if she were to ever get over her anxiety, Vee would make a good actress. She could imagine Vee late at night using her techie skills to edit and make an amazing YouTube series with the rest of their friends on screen, but for some reason Vee was the only one editing. _Just being realistic_ , her mind said innocently.  
_Shut up, me._  
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Vee said quietly, “we should go up to your room. So that, you know, you can crash. And It’ll be quiet.”  
Tai rolled her eyes. “Lord Almighty, Vee, could you be _any_ more awkward?”  
“Yes.”  
Tai then made the strategic move to head upstairs, slightly tugging Vee along. They made their way upstairs and into Tai’s room. Tai let go of Vee and sat on the bed.  
“The doctor said I was allowed screens today, right?” Tai inquired.  
“Yes…” Vee said cautiously. She hoped this wasn’t going where she thought it would.  
Of course, hope was against her.  
“Movie night!” Tai exclaimed gleefully. She ran over to the TV and grabbed a few movies. “I have Disney, Pixar, some classics, DC and Marvel-”  
“Tai.”  
“Oh! And the Harry Potter series, and some Steven Universe episodes-”  
“Tai.”  
“I also have Netflix, we can watch something on there, too-”  
“Tai!” Vee ran forward, catching Tai before she fell.  
_Huh_. Tai didn’t remember her knees buckling. _Why don’t I?_  
“Tai?” Vee walked Tai over to the bed and let her fall onto it. “You okay?”  
“I-I think?” the elder responded. “I probably got too excited or something. I’m okay now.”  
Vee got up and nervously grinned. “How about you stay here, and _I_ pick the movie.” She made her way to the TV set and shuffled through the movies. “Okay, let’s see, which haven’t we done yet… Inside Out?”  
“Too relatable.”  
“The Princess Bride?”  
“Only for Mom would I ever.”  
Vee pulled out another movie. “Okay. How about Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief?”  
The two stared at each other for a long moment before they broke off giggling.  
“Good one.” Tai chuckled. “I know I don’t have that one, it’s terrible.”  
“Nah, I was joking, how about we do the Lion King?”  
Tai smiled. “Perfect.”  
Late at night  
Vee scribbled away the answers on her homework. She checked her phone. 2:00 AM. Tai snoozed next to her. Vee yawned and smirked. She ruffled the elder’s semi-short hair and got up. Vee took her backpack and made her way home.  
She walked through the front door to see all the lights on and squinted. Her father had dozed off on the couch again. Vee smiled. If this had happened a year ago, Vee would have assumed her father had gotten drunk and crashed on the couch. Now, however, with his work laptop on his lap and a summoning semi-circle of papers on the coffee table, she knew that he had fallen asleep working. She quietly grabbed an apple from the fridge and headed upstairs, crashing on her bed before she had a chance to take a bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates will just be whenever i write down the stuff from now on, I have up to Chapter 7 written, and the plot starts to thicken around 7, so...
> 
> Fun fact: I actually went on a hike a bit ago, and it was after i had written this, I was so scared I would hurt myself during it (I didn't).


	4. Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Anxiety Attack, Minor Violence, Injuries

Vee woke up at the alarm. She slammed her hand on it, turning it off, and groaned. Her eyes hurt from watching movies, her head hurt from doing homework, her legs hurt from walking home tired, _everything hurt-  
Stop.  
This isn’t getting you anywhere.  
Take a deep breath._  
Vee calmly got out of bed and got ready for the following day. She looked at the pitiful half-eaten apple on her desk and threw it away. She definitely wasn’t eating that.  
She finally made her way downstairs and grabbed a handful of cereal to shove into her mouth for breakfast. No time for anything else.  
She ran to Tai’s house, gasping for breath, barged in, ran up the stairs, and burst into Tai’s room. “Tai! Pills! Quick!”  
After somehow getting Tai to wake up and eat them, Vee ran out of the house again, checking her phone. 7:14. Six minutes and she’d be late. Her anxiety over being late gave her even more adrenaline stacked upon what was already there from running, and she dashed to school.  
She rammed into the art room three seconds before the bell rang. Vee felt three seconds’ relief. Three seconds of thinking, _Thank the Lord_ , before the bell’s ringing jumped her like a broken car.  
She freaked out, and was numbly aware of other people talking around her as her anxiety spiked. She felt an arm around her, guiding her, and she didn’t fight it.  
 _Oh God I did something wrong I’m in trouble their gonna expel me-_  
She felt someone push her into a chair. She saw a blur in front of her, looking tan and with bits of blue and red- paint, maybe?  
 _Asha? Are-are you talking? Am I in trouble? What did I do wrong? Wait she’s talking. What’s she saying?_  
It was blurred, but after focusing, she could start to hear Asha’s voice form into words. “Vee? Look at me. Focus on what I’m saying.” _What did I do wrong? I don’t know, did I forget, what’s happening, I’m going to get punished why does my chest hurt why’s Asha mad-_ “Hey, Vee, focus. I'm not mad. You're not in trouble. No one's going to hurt you. I'm here. And so are the rest of your friends. Saga, and Ray. What's wrong?”  
Vee stared at Asha for a long moment, and mumbled, “Woke up late.” Vee’s vision was returning to it's usual sharp 20/10. Her breathing was returning to normal. “Ran to Tai’s, then here. Bell. Loud. Scared me.”  
Saga got on her knees to be eye level with Asha and Vee. “That explains a lot. You woke up late, and rushed to Tai’s, correct?” Vee nodded. “Then after getting Tai to take her medicine, you ran to school, and was already struggling to breathe.” Saga looked behind herself at the teacher, who was teaching and stealing concerned looks at the quiet group. “Then the bell rang, just when you had started calming down. And as we all know, loud noises can trigger you into an anxiety attack, which it sounds like you were already most of the way to. Am I correct?”  
Vee nodded. “S-sorry.” She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. When did she start crying? “Let's get back to art. C’mon.” She uncurled herself and slung her backpack behind her chair. Ray, who had been feeling useless, got up let the teacher know the situation and that everything was okay.  
Everybody was feeling awkward, the four friends, the teacher, even the rest of the class. Finally the teacher nervously cleared her throat and continued the lesson, and Ray went back to sit down.  
“So, uh…” Ray trailed off, and that sparked a bit of worry in Vee’s mind. _Why is she nervous? She’s never like this. What did the teacher say? Did she-_  
“Woah, calm down, Vee, I’m fine, and your fine.” Ray looked at Vee in slight shock as she started working towards panic again. “I-I’m just a little nervous ‘cause the Ms. Nickel wants you to go to the nurse, and she won’t let all of us come.” Ray stared at the girl with an opposite personality to hers. “Just one.”  
So, as you’d assume, the three olders freshmen said, “I’ll do it.” At the same time.  
They continued to argue about who should go until Vee murmured, “S’okay. I can go by m’self.” She buried her mouth in her sleeve, so it was hard to understand her.  
The others looked at Vee, beyond concerned. Vee _never_ wanted to go _anywhere_ alone, especially right after an attack.  
“Vee-” Asha said, but was cut off.  
“I’m fine, really. I’ll just go real quick, and I’ll be back.” With that she got up, put her hood on (which for some reason this school allowed), and walked out of the art room.  
However, instead of going for the nurse’s office, Vee went into a nearby women’s restroom. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her purple-and-blue ponytail was messed up from running and then running her hands through it when she was having the attack. Her make-up, only used for the sake of covering her eye bags, was smeared. She looked awful.  
She cleaned herself up, re-applying the makeup, redoing her hair, and took deep breaths. By the time she was done, she looked good enough to go back to class, and she surprisingly only took 15 minutes. Still another forty minutes of Art.  
She would do it.  
In Art Class  
Vee re-entered the classroom quietly, and tried to ignore the stares she got from the classroom. She sat down in the seat Asha had put her in prior, and looked at her friends. Saga mouthed, ‘are you okay?’ Vee wasn’t really sure, but she gave a thumbs up anyway.  
The rest of the lesson continued on as normal, and Vee was able to pick up that it was mainly about shading, being so early in the school year. In fact, when Vee looked out the window to the open campus, she realized that most trees were still covered in lush green leaves with patches of gold and red. Why hadn’t she noticed that before? I guess I’ve always been too busy to notice those details, but I’m usually on top of details. Huh… Vee shrugged and turned her focus back to the teacher.  
“-is very important in drawing as professional shading can really bring a drawing or painting alive and realistic, even simple shading is vital…”  
In between classes  
“Are you certain you’re okay, Vee?” Saga walked with Vee to their next class, along with Asha; Ray had soccer practice on Tuesdays while the rest of them had regular PE.  
“We could ask Ms. Nickel to write you a slip to skip PE if you want,” Asha offered.  
“No, it’s okay, really, I’m feeling much better after drawing.” Vee was feeling better, that was true, but she was still not her best. However, she was determined not to drag her friends down with her. “It wasn’t even a big anxiety attack. And Asha, you stopped it within, like, five minutes. I’m lucky you were there, it could have gone on for forever.” Also true.  
“But still- you sure?” Saga inquired.  
“Yes.”  
“But-” Asha started.  
“Yes.”  
Asha and Saga shared a look, but they had reached the gymnasium, no more time for argument. Saga sighed in resignation and led the other two freshmen in.  
Asha’s eyes widened. “Ray’s gonna _kill_ us.”  
Saga nodded with a smile. “She’s going to be raging about the fact that soccer made her miss this.”  
Vee looked around. Boys vs girls, as always, with dozens of dodgeballs on the ground. The boys starting at their back line, girls copying across the dividing line. Saga, Asha and Vee hurried to the girls side of the gym. _This is going to be… interesting._  
End of PE  
All the freshmen were slumped against walls or each other, panting and chugging water. Nobody had been left without a few bruises, but everyone was happy and content with how many people they had hit. Even Vee.  
Saga still didn’t understand the purpose of hitting people with a ball hard enough to bruise, and Asha had to keep telling her, “it’s just for fun, Saga!” So Saga played, for Asha’s sake.  
Vee looked at her hands and winced. She had forgotten to put the special fingerless gloves her dad gave her to protect the palms (she had gotten burned recently and was ordered to wear them), and as a result they were raw and pink. She quickly shoved her jacket back on and pulled the overlong sleeves over her hands. She could imagine each friends’ reaction to seeing it, none of them good. Besides, after having an anxiety attack that morning, she wanted to have the rest of the day be relaxing, for herself and the others.  
Vee got up and walked over to Saga and Asha. They were both rubbing bruises on their arms, and Vee, knowing they had PE today, magically produced bruise paste for the two of them.  
Saga took it with a grateful smile. “Honestly, where would we be without you, Vee?”  
“In a dumpster, scrounging for food because your parents threw you out, they were so disgusted at how awful you were.” Vee didn't miss a beat as she deadpanned. Saga stared at Vee, and snorted.  
“Tell me, Vee, where would _you_ be without _us_?”  
Dang. Asha got her there. “Erm… well…”  
Asha shushed her little bean and smiled. “I won't make you talk about it. Now, c’mon, we'll ‘Vee’ late for Algebra, and you know how harsh Mr. Ethan can be.”  
Even Saga shuddered. Yes, it was true, their Algebra teacher want hesitant to give out detentions to even the best of students if given proper reason. They hurried off to class, and given this was a mandatory class for all freshmen, it was the only class other than Art and English they all had together usually.  
They arrived early, of course, and set down their bags below their chairs. _This is gonna be a long hour and a half_ , Vee thought as the rest of the class slowly filed in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: I actually had a panic(or maybe anxiety I dunno) attack after hiking the other day and now I know why my poor anxious friend suffers so much. And there's always a first time for everything, even anxiety attacks.


	5. Math

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saga POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions and description of anxiety attacks, mentions of gayness (but seeing as how this includes Sanders Sides...)

Saga stared at the board, frustrated. She was able to understand most lessons within minutes, but if she turned to do anything else once she got it, she would get scolded by Mr. Ethan. Not only that, but he refused to hand out the work until _everybody_ understood the lesson, so it wasn’t uncommon to have homework.  
Saga let herself unfocus, being consumed by her thoughts, all the while seemingly paying attention. She looked back at the situation earlier that morning. It had gone by so fast, and Vee brushed off the anxiety attack like it was nothing. But Saga knew that the after effects would lead for Vee to be fragile for the rest of the day, they had gathered that data back in fifth, when Vee had first moved into the town.  
Saga remembered Asha, who had had problems of her own to deal with, coming out about being gay at such an early age, looking at the new kid with warm smile. Saga remembered fondly of how Vee had worn a fluffy purple jacket and squeaked when Asha had said, ‘Hello, I’m Asha, and these are Ray, Saga, and Tai. You’re new here, right? What’s your name?’   
And Vee, much shorter than any of them back then, had mumbled something and then hurried away. Saga reminiscenced about Asha stepping to follow, but then Saga herself had held onto her shoulder and said, ‘Imagine you were confronted with a group of tall kids and asked your name. Would you be intimidated?’ Asha had nodded and they continued to recess, with occasional glances at Vee, who had climbed a tree and was there until the end.  
The memory sped toward the next day, again at recess, the one before lunch, and Saga remembered Asha saying she was going to get a drink of water while they were fighting an imaginary beast, a lion with a dragon head and wings. She came back a few minutes later with the shy little girl behind her, and Asha had asked, ‘Do you guys mind if N- what?’ She leaned over to listen to the tiny girl talk, and Asha said, ‘if _Vee_ can play with us?’  
The group was welcoming, and after a little while they became friends, eventually having Vee sit with them during lunch and in class, and playing with them at recess. The group agreed that Vee was great to have around, reining them in with Saga sometimes, pointing out reasons they shouldn’t do stupid things, sometimes even hanging out with them after school to watch a movie.  
Until she had her first attack in front of the others.  
They had been watching a scary movie for the first time as an entire group, and Saga had remembered looking at Vee, seeing her curled up in herself at the climax. Suddenly, a jumpscare appear, and although most of them screamed (being 9, 10, and 11 year olds), Vee let out a shriek of terror and curled into herself even more, her breathing becoming rapid and shallow. Thankfully, since Tai had had a few before herself, the squad knew what to do, and Tai succeeded in working Vee out of the attack in ten painfully long minutes.  
Vee had wiped her eyes of their tears and murmured, ‘I’m sorry for ruining tonight. It’s okay if you don’t want me to come over again.’  
Ray’s eyes had grown wide. ‘Vee, why would we want you to leave? You’re awesome, and we love you.’  
‘Platonically,’ Saga clarified.  
‘Platonically,’ Ray agreed. ‘And we know how to deal with anxiety. A certain someone-’ Ray nudged Tai ‘-we know has a fair amount.’  
Saga felt the need to say something. ‘And beside that, why would we stop being your friends simply because of that? It’s not like you’re a horrible demon fairy or anything.’  
Suddenly, Saga was pushed out of her memory by Ray shaking her shoulder. Ry pointed to the teacher, who was calling out that today’s lesson wouldn’t have work attached and that they could roam campus for the half an hour to lunch. Asha and Ray silently high-fived right before Mr. Ethan dismissed, and suddenly the room erupted in cheers. Vee, who was in the desk in front of Saga, jerked up, apparently caught up in a daydream of her own. She looked around before finding the other three freshmen and said, “w-who, what, happen-?”  
Saga, Asha and Ray burst into laughter as they got up and led a confused bean out of the room.  
“I still don’t know what’s going on, am I in trouble?” Vee said sleepily. Saga frowned. She didn’t think Vee would care so little about a class that she would sleep in it.  
“Vee, are you okay?” Saga put a hand on her shoulder, causing the younger to flinch slightly. “It’s not like you to fall asleep in class.”  
“I did?” Vee looked surprised. “I don’t remember falling asleep.” She looked troubled. “I didn’t even know I could at school,” she said quietly.  
“What?” Asha’s eyes widened in surprise. “You mean you can’t fall asleep at school?”  
Now that Saga thought about it, she realized that she had never seen Vee fall asleep in class. Nor had she ever noticed the deep eye bags underneath Vee’s eyes, she thought with a jolt. They weren’t colored, _probably just a result of makeup_ , but she couldn’t hide the depth of them.  
Suddenly, Saga’s brain started exploding with other memories and thoughts, to the point where she had to stop walking. _Vee’s always laughing at Asha’s jokes, no matter how bad. She doesn’t sleep at school. She has quite the bags underneath her eyes. And she never, not once gets a sugar rush from the hot chocolate._  
The others had noticed by now that she had stopped, and the three looked at her in concern. “You okay?” Asha’s voice broke her thoughts.  
“Yeah,” Saga lied easily. “I just thought we should go over to Tai’s house again today, as a group.”  
Ray looked at the others and said, “I’m in!”  
Saga watched Vee and Asha say they’ll be there, and then the friends continued on through the school to the lunchroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me..Filler chapter


	6. Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of Illness, Injury, Severe Anxiety and Insomnia.
> 
> This is also a really emotional chapter, I guess, so be warned.

The four freshmen walked to Tai’s house, chatting idly. As usual, they came in, announcing their presence but not knocking. They saw Tai poke her head above the couch, her short golden-brown hair, usually styled to look slightly ruffled, was disheveled, a fluffy blanket covering her.  
Tai’s orange tabby cat, Mishka, jumped up to look at the other girls. With that, Tai said evilly, “I’ve been expecting you…”  
Ray snorted with laughter and Asha giggled. However, Saga had more pressing matters on her mind. “Tai, may we sit on the couch?” Tai nodded, and the four distributed themselves among the long couch. “I have a few matters concerning today that I think we should discuss as a group.”  
Saga looked pointedly at Vee, and was immediately taken aback by the expression of being absolutely terrified on her face.  
Asha was the first to react. “Vee, hey, she didn’t mean to expose you, she just wants to make sure you’ll to be okay,” she said, jumping up to sit next to Vee.  
Vee stared numbly at the others. She forced herself to stay calm. If they found out about her insomnia, that’d be okay. Okay.  
Saga continued carefully. “Tai, Vee had another anxiety attack this morning.”  
Tai perked up, suddenly alert. “What?!” She looked over at Vee. “B-but you said you were fine this morning when you came here after running!”  
Vee liked embarrassed. “The bell just scared me a bit. I'm fine…” she trailed off as the others gave her a cross expression. “Honestly, I just had a little scare! I've been fine for the rest of today, I even played dodgeball.”  
Ready widened her eyes. “First off, without me?! How dare thee! And second,” she added warningly, “did you remember the gloves?”  
Vee winced. She had hoped against hope Ray and the others would forget. “N-no…” she mumbled.  
Asha gasped. “I _knew_ we forgot something! Why didn't you put them on?” She glared at Vee accusingly.  
“I-I forgot and didn't want to worry you guys. Sorry.”

The three started telling Vee off, but Asha simply waited until it died down. She then said, “Vee, can I see your hands?”  
Vee sighed and pulled her sleeves off her hands, pink and raw. Asha stared down at them and said, “I wish it didn’t have to happen. I’ll get you some lotion tomorrow.”  
Vee heard Saga sigh through her nose. “We are getting off topic. And there is another thing I would like to discuss.”  
_Uh-oh. What is it now?_  
“Vee, please correct me if I'm wrong, but be honest. Do you have insomnia?” Saga asked calmly.  
Everyone was silent. They looked from Saga to Vee. She could tell _nobody_ had expected that. Vee could practically hear the gears turning inside each mind.  
“ _...yes._ ”  
The effect was immediate and irreversible. Asha and Tai gasped in disbelief, Ray said, “ _Why didn't you tell us?_ ” Saga simply nodded and waited for the others to calm down.  
It took a while. But when they finally did, everybody but Saga was crying. Even Vee. Thank goodness Tai’s parents were out for the day. Vee felt the tears sting her cheeks, again smearing the makeup she wore.  
Asha, thoroughly defeated, got up, grabbed a box of wet wipes and tissues, and came back. She offered both to Vee.  
She reluctantly accepted them, first wiping her tears away, then the makeup. She heard a small gasp escape from each member, even Saga. Vee hung her head.  
“How bad are they?” she murmured.  
Ray brought a small mirror out of her pocket. She held it up, and Vee herself had to bite back a gap of horror. Without her makeup, the eye bags are a deep, dark purple, making her pale skin look even more pale than normal and slightly stretched. She looked straight from a horror film.  
“You…” Tai’s face betrayed her disbelief. “You never told me?”  
“May I inquire why you and not us should know?” Saga’s voice became fuzzy after Tai’s words. I thought you knew, Tai.  
Vee watched Tai shrink into her blanket. “N-no reason. At all.”  
The words brought Vee back to the present. She sighed. “Yes, there is a reason, Saga. Tai, would you mind if I…?” Vee looked at Tai. The elder looked at the younger with an unreadable expression. Hurt? Trust?  
Then the short-haired girl looked at the others, looked at Vee, and said, “If you must.”  
Vee looked at the other three curious faces. “So… I guess I’ll do the whole story. Awhile back, me and Tai got our DNA tested on Ancestory.com to find out where we were from. And as you know, I was adopted by a married couple until my biological father found me and took me back. We moved here. And this was around the time Tai’s parents got divorced.  
“So we got our results from testing back, and we couldn't believe what came out. We asked our patents if it was true, and they both said no. So we carried on with our lives.  
“But then one night, when I had crashed at Tai’s, she woke me up. I asked why she was so excited, since it was literally 3:30 in the morning. She just smiled really wide and dragged me out of bed. Mind you, we were in seventh. No judging.” Vee glared at the other three accusingly.  
“Tai led me into her mom's room and grabbed something. Then she dragged me back into her room. She said, ‘it was true,’ and handed the file to me. In it was two birth certificates and a photo. The birth certificates were Tai’s… and mine.”  
Vee looked at Saga, Asha, and Ray’s faces, which had gone from curious to engrossed to astonished. “The picture proved it. It was of me at two and change and Tai at three years old, with the caption of, ‘Tai and little Vee. Finally out of the hospital!’”  
“She was sick, nearly died.”  
Vee looked at Tai in surprise. “How-”  
“Mom told me you had lived, but the other people came and took you. So I believed her.” Tai scowled. “I once snuck into her room to see what you looked like, and I found your hospital papers from when you were two. To save you they had to give you medication that could lead to lifelong insomnia.”  
The five sat in silence until Ray loudly cleared her throat. “So, what you're telling me is that Tai and Vee are sisters, and we've been lied to by several, several people?”  
Tai and Vee exchanged a look and gave identical lopsided smiles. Both were dry. “Guess so,” Tai said.  
Saga put her hands on her head and then let them fall down limply. “I'm… going to go and process whatever the heck I just started.” She got up and left the house, soon followed by Ray and Asha.  
Leaving the two sisters alone.  
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us.”  
Vee looked at Tai with a pained expression. “I already have bad anxiety that you guys worry about.” Vee huffed at her own words. “Worrying about anxiety. But still, now all you guys will do at night is practically force me into my bed, and that won’t help. Insomnia isn’t just a lack of _wanting_ to sleep.” The younger looked at her hands. “It’s not being _able_ to sleep. Not only that, but now you’ll all pester me, ‘how much did you sleep last night?’ and I can’t go to bed worrying about you guys worrying about me.”  
Tai stayed silent for a long time, then said, “You look so different from me.”  
“Huh?”  
“You’re so pale and skinny, and you’re hair is darker when it isn’t dyed and you have really long arms and a different face…” She trailed off.  
“But the same eyes.” Vee looked back at her older sibling. “The eye shape, the color… the same eyes.” But yours are full of hope and life. Your eyes don’t greet yourself in the mirror with an empty, broken appearance.  
“Yeah…” Tai looked back at her sister with stunning silver eyes. Then her eyelids closed, and Vee watched her sister fall asleep.  
Vee wished she could follow suit so easily.  
Unfortunately, she was certain that sleep wouldn’t bless her tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me...
> 
> Edit: Mishka is a real cat I had that ran away.


	7. Numb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short Chapter  
> Warnings: Mentions of Alcohol, Panic/Anxiety Attacks, Injury
> 
> I apologize in advance

Vee didn’t remember getting up, walking out the door, and dragging herself to her own house. She didn’t remember opening the front door and dragging herself upstairs to her room. She was just suddenly in bed, lying there. She didn’t even know for how long.  
But morning came. Her alarm came. And she ignored it. It just kept ringing, and Vee didn’t stop it, didn’t heed it, didn’t do anything but lie on the bed numbly in regular clothes.  
She heard her door open, and heard her father ask, “Vee, you going to go to school today?”  
Strange, she thought. He used to force her to school. Now he gave her a choice.  
But she couldn’t speak. She simply sat up a bit and shook her head, blue-purple strands of hair falling over her face.  
He nodded and said, “I’ll tell the school.”  
He didn’t ask questions, he knew about his daughter’s anxiety and insomnia. And she was the biggest reason he stopped doing alcohol. He was accepting and understanding of her for that.  
Vee just sat there in bed for a long time, feelings numb from the panic attack yesterday, then revealing she had insomnia and Tai was her older sister, the former something she had hoped to never tell the others. Her hands hurt, she couldn't touch anything, but she curled up as much as she she could anyway.  
She had no idea how long she had been there, a few hours at least, when hunger forced her out of her room and down into the kitchen. She dragged her feet along the way and just grabbed a cereal box to take upstairs. She hadn't eaten that day, and she had hadn't had and lot of food yesterday, but she was too numb numb to notice just how bad her hunger was.  
She went back upstairs, not noticing how clean the downstairs was. She traded into her room and closed the door, crawling back onto her bed and eating the cereal in the box. What kind? She didn't know. She couldn't taste it.  
She set the box down after consuming about a quarter of it. She kind of wanted wanted to check the time, but she didn't.   
Hours passed.  
And Vee didn't even notice.  
She heard knocking downstairs. She didn't even care.  
Then she heard a huge _BANG_ and Ray screaming.  
That should have jolted Vee back to reality. It didn't.  
And she heard the sound of many feet thumping on the stairs. Yet she was still curled up upon her bed. Then the door was slammed open, and she heard Ray yell, “THANK GOD YOU’RE OKAY VEE!”  
And she lifted her head. She didn't unfurl. She just lifted her head. Her exhausted, broken expression must have said a lot.  
Because every single relieved expression turned to extreme worry.


	8. Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Self-harm, injury, lack of sleep

Ray watched in relief as Vee lifted her head. She had been beyond worried when she hadn't shown up at school, had paced the entirety of their break, and had raced to Tai’s house only only to find that Vee had never woken Tai up for the pills, but Tai had assured Ray she had taken them anyway.  
Ray had then rushed to Vee’s house, followed by the other two fit-for-running freshmen. Saga had insisted they knock, but when that hadn't worked, Ray burst in. And had ran up to thankfully find Vee. The girl who was like a little sister to her. _Maybe even more than that..._  
Which is why it turned Ray’s blood to ice so cold it cracked her heart when Vee looked up with eye bags worse than yesterday and glassy eyes that looked shattered, as if something in Vee had broken.  
Ray felt tears touch her cheeks. She walked towards the skinny girl and sat in front of her on the bed. “Vee…” Ray heard her voice crack and she winced. Yet she put a hand on Vee’s cheek. “What happened?”  
Vee opened her mouth, but no sound came out. That broken expression on her face, thank goodness, was replaced by one of mild frustration. Vee tried again to no avail.  
Ray looked at Vee in concern. She had heard of anxiety bad enough to where the person couldn't talk, but that had never happened to Vee. She always preferred to just stay silent. Right?  
Vee took a deep breath and finally made a noise. “I didn't sleep last night. Just sat here all day.”  
Then Asha said something nobody expected.  
“Can I talk to Vee alone for a minute?”  
“What?” Both Vee and Ray said.  
“You heard me. Alone.”  
“But, Asha, having all of us here is no different than just you-” Saga started only to be shushed by Asha.  
“Please?”  
Ray cursed silently. Asha was using her signature puppy-dog eyes look. Saga and Ray looked at each other, and Ray sighed. “Fine. But if anything happens, shout for us.”  
The drama queen and bookworm left the room and closed the door, waiting for what felt like forever at the top of the stairs. Finally, Asha opened the door, and was surprisingly followed by Vee, who still looked tired, but not nearly as much as before. In fact, her eye bags were almost completely gone. _Huh..._  
“Hey,” Asha said. “I’m done.”  
Ray didn’t miss a beat, she got up and strode over to Vee. She said softly, “How d’you feel, Vee?”  
Vee looked down at her hands, which were no longer raw. “Better. Asha put me to sleep or something. I feel like a slept for a hundred hours straight.” Ray watched as Vee’s gaze slid up to meet her emerald green eyes. “I feel _calm._ No anxiety… _at all._ ”  
Saga looked at Asha. “How? I mean, I knew you know how to hypnotize, but you did this? I mean…” Saga starting rambling, trying to figure out how the older freshman did it. Asha just shrugged.  
“I’m good like that.” she interrupted and put a hand on Vee’s shoulder. She said kindly, “Do you feel up to going to Tai’s?”  
Vee nodded.  
And Ray started to wonder, because hell, no hypnosis could have helped Vee like that.  
Tai’s house  
“Honestly, Tai, I’m fine, calm down!”  
“How am I supposed to calm down?! You didn’t show at school, and the felt like an empty shell for most of the day, but when Asha hypnotises you to sleep, you’re suddenly better than you’ve ever felt before!”  
“Tai, just hold on a sec. Asha helped me, I feel _rested._ My hands don’t hurt. _My anxiety is gone._ Do you realize how good I feel? I haven’t felt so relaxed and calm in _years,_ Tai.”  
“STOP!” Ray stood suddenly, thoroughly fed up with the constant back and forth. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. What I want to know,” the drama queen stared at Asha, “is how you healed Vee’s burns. That’s not how hypnosis works.”  
“I-I just… had a first-aid kit on me!” Asha said in a bubbly, unconvincing voice.  
“‘Falsehood.’” Saga quoted a Youtuber. “It couldn’t have fit.”  
“Okay, you got me, there was one in Vee’s room.”  
Vee looked at Asha. “No, there wasn’t.”  
Ray gasped dramatically. “Asha, do you have superpowers to heal others and put them to sleep?!” she joked.  
Asha looked terrified for a fraction of a second, then her face arranged in a calm mask. “No, of course not. Don’t be silly.”  
“Another deceit.” Saga said. “I’ve noticed it before. Ray is indeed correct.” Saga looked over at Ray. “I’ve also noticed your… ‘abilities,’ Ray. You seem to have pyrokinetic qualities.”  
“W-what- how-” Ray sputtered.  
“No, I don’t have any, I’m just observant.” Saga said matter-of-factly. Asha and Ray gaped at her.  
Finally, Asha deflated. “Yeah, I can heal others, and if I concentrate, I can put them to sleep. I don’t actually know how to hypnotize,” she shrugged. “I thought you guys would think I’m a freak if I told you.”  
Ray looked at the others, then down at her hands, and sighed. “And I, too, have a ‘superpower.’ I have magical fire powers. There, I said it.”  
“Prove it.”  
Tai looked determinedly at her friends, one freckled and the other dark-skinned. “You heard me. Prove that you can do it.”  
Ray snorted. “If you insist, my princess.” Ignoring Tai’s offended retort, Ray summoned a small fire that danced across her fingertips, followed by the familiar sensation of pins and needles.  
Tai stared at Ray, apparently entranced. Ray quickly let the flames die in her hand and pulled it into a fist. Tai shook out of her stupor and looked at Asha. “Your turn,” she said.  
Asha looked troubled, and said, “But there’s nobody hurt, and I don’t know if it works on headaches.”  
Ray watched as Vee got up and made her way into the kitchen. _What in the world is she doing?_ Ray thought. Vee came back with a knife in her hand, and Ray realized what Vee was about to do a moment before it happened. Ray shouted, “VEE, DON’T-!” But it was too late. Vee cut the side of her hand, it was just barely, only deep enough for a trickle of blood, but Vee winced and the other four girls started shouting at her stupidity.*  
“Guys, it’s okay, I’ve been worse,” Vee said with a small smile. “Now, Asha, do it before it scars or something, please.”  
Asha made her way to the younger freshman and pressed a hand against the wound. Vee flinched slightly, but relaxed her forever-taught muscles when a comforting sky blue glow played around the wound and caused it to vanish. “Thanks,” she mumbled.  
With that, Asha’s eyes flickered the same sky blue color, and Vee collapsed. Thank goodness, Asha caught her and laid her on the couch.  
“You’re a foolish little girl, Vee,” Asha murmured fondly. “Do you believe me now, Tai?” She looked pointedly at the elder, who looked torn between wanting to help her little sister and want to strangle her.  
“Fine, then. You two have superpowers. If you’re so super, fix my headache and nearly broken arm.”  
“Tai, it isn’t that simple-”  
“Isn’t it?”  
“Yeah, okay, I could if I wanted. And I want to. You sure about this?”  
“For God’s sake, _yes_ , I just said that.”  
And with that, the super-healer touched a glowing hand to Tai’s head, and Tai fell asleep. But when Asha took the bandages on her face and neck off, they were completely healed underneath. “Got ‘em…” Asha said sleepily.  
Then she fell onto the couch. Asleep.  
Saga and Ray looked at each other. Then they sighed in resignation and dragged the freckled and pale freshmen outside, shoved them into a large wagon, and in one way or another, each of the four made it into their own beds that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *this isn't going to be a huge part of the story, but Vee once participated in self-harm


	9. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of weapons, Mentions of injury, Teasing, Mentions of physical abuse

Vee woke up confused, and early. The last thing she remembered was… she choked.  
_Oh, god. The knife._  
She had cut herself. Something she had promised herself she would never do again. And she had done it in front of the others. _Breathe, Vee, breathe._ She could feel her own breath becoming shallow and rapid, and she forced herself to take deep breaths.  
She soon calmed down, and her alarm went off. No, not a loud beeping alarm. She had a soothing tone that woke her up but didn’t startle her. She turned it off and got ready for school. _Don’t worry, it’s Friday. Just get through the day._  
Vee got dressed for school and went into the bathroom to put on makeup, then realized, thanks to Asha, she didn’t have to. Her eye bags were completely gone.  
She went downstairs to see her father working intensely on his computer. He looked up and said, “feeling better today, Vee?” Vee nodded and smiled. “Nice to see you without makeup on.”  
They continued to make small talk (Vee’s dad did most of the talking) while Vee ate a bowl of cereal. She finished and said goodbye to him, leaving to walk to her sister’s house.  
Vee opened the front door quietly and snuck into Tai’s room, scribbling a note: _Remember your pills. Vee._ Then she hurried downstairs, out of the house, and to school.  
She made it to school with about ten minutes or so before class. Because of the energy boost Asha’s healing provided, Vee was enjoying the cool morning and the walk to school, carrying herself a bit more confidently than usual, causing many people whom she had known for a long time to turn and stare. This was nothing like Vee. Vee was shy, slouched, and shrunk away from heads turning. But she wasn't feeling tired, wasn't feeling very bad that morning.  
She saw her friends in front of the art room, chatting. Vee walked over to them and said, “What’re you guys talking about?”  
All three of them jumped, and Vee hid a smile. Asha turned around, and a smile grew onto her face, but was quickly replaced by a serious expression. _Uh-oh_.  
“Vee, why did you cut yourself yesterday? That must have hurt really badly!” Asha worried.  
Vee shrugged. “Used to it.”  
Saga cut in. “Vee, it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re ‘used to it.’ that was extremely unsafe, and dumb. You wouldn’t want to fall prey to-”  
She was cut off by Vee shushing her. “ _Not here_ , Saga, not now.” Vee felt her shoulders tense once more, and her mind race. “Someone could hear. We can talk about this later.”  
Just then the bell rang, and the four hurried into the art room, for fear they’d be run over if they didn’t hurry.  
The day went by quicker than usual, it seemed. Or maybe sleep sped up the waking world, too. Vee didn't know. She was still too lazy to look it up.  
Vee looked up from her last class, drama, to see ten minutes left of school. The class had been a bit more enjoyable than on average. Although lack of sleep very much intensified her shyness and overall introvertedness and lack of want for social interaction, it was still part of her, just not as bad. She couldn’t actually _act,_ heavens forbid, but she was able to put a bit more courage into her voice and get tasks done faster. They were working on a play that day, one that was supposed to go on in a few weeks. When Vee pulled the curtains down after the end of rehearsal, she saw Ray come back stage.  
“That was amazing! If we do that as well at the actual thing, I’m sure it’ll be the best we’ve put on this year!” Ray announced.  
The three techies, Vee, Tana, and Fabio looked at each other and smiled. Ray was confident and a natural leader, and when she said that they were amazing, it wasn’t hard to believe.  
“Well, somebody wasn’t so slow today,” Tana said teasingly, “and that just made everything much easier.”  
Vee snorted. “Like you get more sleep than I do.” She admired Tana for several reasons, but the other girl wasn’t an easy sleeper. Vee took a good look at the other teenager, who was even younger than Vee. Tana was pale, which led to her joking about being a vampire often. She was tall and skinny, freckles clustered around her joints. Vee also admired Tana’s sea-green metallic hair, and her stunning hazel eyes, which were usually a caramel brown with a rim of green and bits of amber and russet. Vee had heard of eyes changing color with different moods, and Tana was living proof of that. Her eyes grew dark with anger and distrust, and tinged gold with happiness. The green, although rare, usually came around with determined or relaxed moods. However, more often than not, they were a flat gray-brown, which Vee had come to know from Tana’s friends meant that Tana had gone numb and was at the worst of her depression. Vee found it sad that the lively young girl had helped so many of her friends out of depression and yet could not help herself. Thankfully, today Tana’s eyes were a cheery brown and green.  
Tana gasped, mock offended. “Are you implying I have insomnia?! My asthma can’t stand this nonsense!” Tana started pretending to hyperventilate, while Fabio and Vee rolled their eyes.  
“You should be out there on stage, Miss Fake-a-lot,” Fabio said.  
That made Tana blush and say, “It’s not my fault I have stage fright.”  
Ray stared at the trio, confused. “Vee, do they know about your insomnia?”  
Vee looked away from Ray. “After you, Saga, Asha and Tai found out, I told a couple other people. Who promised not to tell anybody,” she added. “That includes… Fabio, plus Tana and her little group. That’s it, though.”  
“Tana’s ‘little group?’” Ray asked.  
Tana spoke up. “Me, obviously, Sav, Sammy, and Sallad.” She stopped dead. “Ray, you don’t think she told _her_ , do you?”  
Ray looked relieved. “No, of course not. I don’t know why I even thought of it.”  
Fabio looked up from a small prop he was finishing. “You guys talking about Merće?”  
Tana shivered at the name. She had had some bad experiences with that girl. Merće was a deceitful liar. She would trick others into a friendship and then use them to help carry out her dirty work. Tana, Sav and Sallad had had a near-death experience because of her. That was all they would tell anybody, but Vee and Saga had witnessed it. And they refused to tell the truth either. Anyhow, it had led up to a friend of Tana’s, Sammy, moving to the school, and the two groups had been mutual friends ever since. _Since Seventh grade._  
And then Merće had struck again in Eighth, terrorizing Vee after school every day and even going to the extent of hurting Vee not just verbally but physically in bad moods.  
But enough of that. Because the rest of them were amazing human beings, the two groups managed to get Merće to stay away.  
Vee snapped out of the memory to see the class leaving for the day. She quickly scooped her backpack up, slid it on, and raced after Ray.  
Ray greeted the wheezing younger freshman when she caught up, lungs slightly burning. “Hey, why don’t we take a trip to the store later with the others? October’s coming up, I can’t wait to get the candy.”  
“For the trick-or-treaters or for ourselves?”  
“Guess.”  
“I guess that Asha’s birthday is tomorrow and you’re getting the candy for her.”  
“WAIT, SHI-” Ray stopped herself. “Y-yeah, let’s go with that, cause I _totally_ didn’t forget about it or anything like that, no way,” she laughed nervously.  
And so, two freshman (one emo and one drama queen) headed to the store.

Vee checked the group chat on her phone:  
DramaticEntrance: Tai you doing okay? Performance was fine  
TheChild: Yeah how about you  
InnocentBean: We’re fine. Anybody remember tomorrow? >.<  
HumanDictionary: Your birthday, correct?  
NotReallyAnEmo: Nah tomorrows doomsday silly  
BowTai: That’s mean Vee  
NotReallyAnEmo: youre not meh mom  
InnocentBean: But I am  
DramaticEntrance: The Horror…  
InnocentBean: Hey!

Vee and Ray looked at each other, grinning.

DisneyPrinceInDisguise: Me and Emo are going to the store for candy be back later  
NotReallyAnEmo: Read my name dork

Ray scoffed and said aloud, “look at you! You’re all dark colored and brooding and mysterious.”  
Vee smirked. “Sure, Drama Queen.”  
She listened silently to Ray’s offended rant until they found themselves into front of a Walmart close to their school. The two friends walked in, exploring for a bit among the Halloween candy before drifting off to birthday supplies. They shoved a bit of stuff into a cart (not too much since they had half-full backpacks to carry as well), and wandered through the store a bit, ending up near the pets. Vee drifts away from Ray, and slips back unnoticed, until Ray sees what’s in her hands.  
“We’re not getting Asha a rabbit, Vee.”  
Vee stared at Ray with pleading eyes. “Please?”  
Ray rolled her eyes and said with a lot of meaning, “No, _love_.”  
The younger sighed and said, “fine, dear.” She stopped dead, feeling her heart racing. “RAY!”  
The elder was snorting in laughter at what she had made the younger do. “Your face was absolutely _priceless_ , Vee! Priceless!”  
And Vee smirked as Ray was too busy laughing to notice when Vee paid to buy the bunny and it’s necessities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I've been called all of the text nicknames before  
> Not-so-Fun Fact: the story of Tana, Sav, Sammy, Sallad and Merce from Seventh is real. The parts including Vee? Entirely made up, Merce didn't do that. No real life-names used in this.
> 
> Edit: Sides officially come in at Chapter 11!


	10. Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Actually not any this chapter

Asha waited for for the clock to strike 12 am. She usually was strict about when she went to bed, but with her birthday she tended to be more lax.  
11:58.  
Asha looked around her bedroom. She was planning on getting it redecorated for her birthday, a gift from her parents.  
11:59.  
She was excited for the others to come over. They had planned a giant birthday party/movie night at Asha’s house.  
30 seconds.  
She wondered what her friends would get her for her birthday.  
10 senconds.  
 _Squeak. _  
What was that.  
Three.  
Footsteps out her door.  
Two.  
A muffled giggle.   
One.   
BANG.   
Asha’s door flew open to reveal Ray, Vee and Saga, all three smiling broadly. And in Vee’s hand…  
 _Was a bunny. _  
A cute little one, the average fluffy brown rabbit. It's coat was a spruce brown with streaks of rowan and oak colors. It had a white tuxedo marking, lined with a defining black rim, and bright blue eyes.  
“You got me a _bunny _?”  
Ray rolled her eyes. “I told Vee she couldn't, but she tricked me and got one. So we pitched in and got supplies for a good six months. I got the cage and toys,” she rambled.   
“I obtained the food and registered it to the local veterinary clinic. I got it tested, and ‘it’ is a ‘he.’” Saga stated.   
Vee stroked the rabbit absently. “And Tai paid for treats and whatnot. She's allowed out of the house today, her mom's gonna drive her over here.”  
Asha felt her smile just getting wider and wider. “Now we all have pets!” She giggled happily. “We should introduce him to Jemma and everyone else! Let me get properly dressed, then I'll set up his cage and we can ride to everybody else’s places to get them!”   
With that Asha jumped out of bed and into her closet, coming out in record time with waist-long natural platinum blonde hair, a loose-fit tie-dye shirt and jeans.  
They stopped by each house to get their animals, ending with Tai’s house. Each of them had an animal of some sort.  
Ray had a medium-small German Shepherd mix, ironically named Rome, who was energetic and friendly. He bounced around, picking all the faces and sniffing all the things on his leash.  
Saga had a bird, a small green parakeet named Simon, and he was social but somehow understood the fact that everyone needed lots of love and sleep. He also very fond of reading and would repeat words that he read, usually pronounced incorrectly.   
Tai, of course, had Topika, an orange tabby queen who was gentle and loving, but went crazy over catnip. And as we know, Asha now has her rabbit, which she had decided to name Ameri.  
Then lastly, Vee had gone in alone to her house to nab her snake, the friendlier of her two pets. The snake, Nedele, was an Eastern Milksnake with several shades of brown and a foot long. Her other pet was a registered young teenage Mississippi Kite. Still, the kite was temperamental and wouldn't hesitate to eat Ameri. However, Nedele wasn’t big enough to eat Ameri, and as Simon was the only animal small enough for Nedele to eat, they simply trained the snake to not eat the bird.  
The group made their way to a local theater that was pet-friendly and went to see a movie.  
The last thing Vee remembered was petting Nedele and Rome halfway through before her vision blacked out.______


	11. Trapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things start getting interesting, finally! I particularly enjoy this chapter (because it made me think outside the box, no other reasons) and I hope you guys will too. Enjoy!

Vee opened her eyes and groaned. _Where am I?_ The last thing she remembered was watching a movie in the theater with her friends, a well deserved break from their usual problems and celebrating Asha’s has birthday.  
She tried to get up, and her conscience swayed. Still, she refused to give up and stood. She felt more numb than usual, groggy and slow-minded. She stretched each of her limbs and noticed something on her hands.  
There were freaking _cuffs_ on her hands, and not the police wrist cuffs. The cuffs covered her hands entirely and made it impossible for her fingers to move from the tight fists they were positioned in. The stupid things joined her arms together, and she couldn't pry them apart.  
Vee started panicking. Her anxiety was rocketing, and she was surprised when she didn't get short of breath. That calmed Vee a bit, but she was still terrified and worried.  
She looked around. She was in some kind of room. Her friends were gone.  
“Well, well, look who's up, Vee.” A figure slowly came into view from the shadows. Why didn't Vee see them? They started mock applauding. “You're the first one awake. A light sleeper, I suppose, the drug was supposed to keep you out for another hour at least,” they drawled.  
Vee tried to concentrate and figure out if anybody else was in the dark. “Oh, dear, don't bother using your powers. The cuffs drain your magical reserve.” They stepped closer and brushed Vee’s cheek, and she used her arms to smack them away. “Feisty, aren't you? I can't wait to see what you can do for us. I think you're definitely my favorite of your friends. C’mon, work with me here.”  
Vee was so aggravated by that silky tone that her voice started working. She snapped back, “who do you think you are!? I'm not staying here with you, freak. Let me and the others go.”  
“Ah, well, guess I'll try again later.” They shrugged. “As for who I am? Call me… oh, how about Shifter? They/them pronouns, kid.” With that, Shifter brushed a finger across Vee’s cheek and turned around, walking off. “Goodbye, little one!” They called as they drifted off into the shadows again.  
Vee growled in the back of her throat, quietly but threateningly to anybody close enough to hear. It was an old habit of reacting to people she _hated_ , or when she was extremely stressed.  
“What the hell did she mean by _powers_?” Vee mumbled to herself as she slowly sat back down, too sleepy to continue standing. With that, she dozed off again.  
...  
The next time Vee woke up, the lamp was gone, and fluorescent light was shining from above. It revealed a cubic room with a bed like those in jail cells and a smaller platform for what Vee assumed was food. A metal door was at one wałl, and the door was open. Vee would have booked it if not for the figure of last night, Shifter, leaning on the frame whilst scrolling through their phone. She scowled. When they saw Vee get up, they shoved their phone in their pocket and walked over to Vee.  
“Vee, you're awake! Those drugs effects should be gone by now, so you needn't worry about that.” Shifter smiled.  
Now that good lighting was on them, Vee was able to depict their actual appearance. They were a little taller than Vee, tan and with brown eyes. They had a dark gray lab coat on, a reptilian contact in the right eye surrounded by a scaly part of their face, tussled short purple hair, and an overall good looking complexion that was somewhere between handsome and beautiful.  
They held the smile and said, “Vee, I know you. You're part of a strange little group of yours at your school. The other people you associate with are...” They paused dramatically. “Known as Tai, your big sister, Asha the open lesbian, Saga the secluded bookworm, and Ray the overconfident idiot.” (Oh, yeah, it wasn’t dramatic.)  
Vee made another quiet growl, which made Shifter betray a flicker of fear before regaining composure. “In those are the worst things you can say about us, you aren't trying. And if you know us so well,” Vee added, “then you would know I don't need my powers or a weapon to cause serious damage.”  
The taller person in front of her made a slightly nervous chuckle. “You never know when to quit,” they teased, “do you? Just relax, I won't hurt you if it can be helped. Be a good little girl, won't you?” They smiled, but there was nothing comforting about it like Asha’s was. It was full of cold happiness. “Then you can see your little friends again!”  
Shifter put a hand on Vee’s shoulder, and ignoring her flinch slowly moved it down her arm, making Vee’s body cold and tingly, something that happened any time she was uncomfortable. The hand reached the metal cuffs, and Shifter sighed. “I hate to put these on you. But you wouldn't cooperate any other way, of course not.” They dragged their hand off the cold metal and stepped back. “I'll leave you alone now. I should make sure the _Royal_ and the others are fine.”  
Shifter turned around and walked confidently out the metal door, which slammed shut.  
Vee started pacing  
“Okay, they have my hands locked, doubt I could use a weapon. Let's think…” Vee looked up at the top of the room. Just as expected, a camera was watching her. One of the stupid 360° cameras. It could see almost everywhere.  
But under the bed… _bingo._  
Vee sat on the hard bed, dropped off, and rolled under. Thank goodness the bed was large enough to cover her entire body. She concentrated, took aim and swung her hands against the wall.  
 _Crack._  
The metal crumpled and came off, but Vee felt at least one or two bones fracture, if not break completely. She let out a quiet groan of pain. _Asha will fix it later._  
Vee felt sharper, feeling her energy slowly build up again. She lay still on the floor until she had enough energy to be sarcastic. Then she shifted into sitting position and bent the cuffs as nest she she could back back to normal. Then she reached in carefully with one hand and pulled out a suspicious looking wire radiating with… something weird. It made her feel chills down her spine and a feeling of anger rise.She laid it under the bed carefully and put the metal clasps back on her hands. She felt energy slowly, painfully slowly, return to her, but even with the strange wire removed, the light hurt her head and wouldn't allow her to feel okay. She wondered if Tai would be kept in the bright light for the same reason. But then, what would the rooms for Ray, Asha and Saga be like? Bright as well?  
Vee sat back on the bed, her headache slowly reducing. She could think more clearly. _Okay._ She took a deep breath and moved over to the door. It had slides upwards last time she had seen it, so opening it would be really hard without super strength.  
The camera couldn't be taken out without raising the alarms, Vee decided. So she had to play it cool. That left only a few things left in room. The lights, and the two platforms for a bed and eating area. Vee didn't know how, but she could sense it wasn't solar-powered. That was good, because sunlight gave the worst headaches. But she only needed to look at the bulbs to tell that they were fluorescent, which wasn't really easy on her head either.  
Vee sighed and concentrated. She felt the headache returning, pounding at her skull.  
The only way to get rid of headaches was sleep.  
Too bad Vee wasn't all that great at drifting off.  
…  
Several hours later, Vee had fallen into a light, uneasy sleep, which was a huge accomplishment considering her throbbing head and Insomnia. She heard the metal door open and jolted out of her doze, breathing heavily.  
“Vee, are you awake?” Dangit. It was that stupid Shifter. Vee groaned and turned to face the wall. “Well, you are now at any rate. Would you mind standing up for me? Or at least facing me?” Shifter tapped Vee’s shoulder playfully.  
Vee flinched and whipped around, using the metal covering her hands to smack them away. Shifter looked surprised, but then let a small smile out.  
“Already figured it out? I think Saga is the only other person even close to figuring it out. Well, I guess I'm gonna have to make it harder for you to break my stuff.” They grabbed Vee’s joined hands and slammed them into her face, knocking her unconscious. The final thing Vee heard before being knocked out was, “I think you'll like the next puzzle.”  
…  
Vee woke in another room, much smaller with only three walls. The last spot was empty, with nothing there.   
Vee then realized that the cuffs covering her hands were gone, replaced with silver wristbands and a cold metal neck choker. Vee could feel the gray metal soaking in any energy she produced. Of course, if her physical energy was depleted, there was no way she could function very well, but at least she was used to it. Well, and she had enough energy to walk around.  
Vee obviously tried to walk out of the three-walled room, but the choker and wristbands pulled her to a stop. She looked over her shoulder and saw a metal bump rising out of the ground. A thin, jagged chain of green… _stuff_ was drawn taught, connecting the bump and Vee’s new, unwanted accessories.  
She tried to plot for a few minutes how to escape. But then she saw Shifter walk in front of the room and turn, surprised towards Vee.  
“Awake again? You're a strong one.” They chuckled. “Well, this makes thing interesting. So, Vee,” they said curiously, “how long have you been using your powers? I mean, I knew your mother, she was OP, heavens forbid she know what happened to you and Tai.”  
Vee stared at Shifter and snorted. “Powers? What kind of drunken state are you in? You sound like I come from a video game.” Vee gestured to the entire room. “I'm afraid to tell you that you're in real life, buddo. This ain't the Sims or whatever.”  
Shifter just gave a sly smirk. “Oh, I can assure you Vee,” they drawled, “I am as sober as can be.”  
“Then what the hell is this?!” Vee yelled. She finally blew her limits. “Why the hell am I in a cage like I'm your pet?”  
Shifter thought for a moment, and responded, “Vee, I plan to help you and your friends to greatness. You and Tai needed contact with magic to activate your powers. That’s why those chains are magical.” They gestured to the green material roping Vee to the bump. “However, I don't want you to run out of on me. This was the best way to do it. And you can help me too.” they paused. “Oh, and Saga has telekinetic powers. She just didn't want to tell you.”  
Suddenly their expression turned hard. “But no matter. You're powers are weak, for now. I'm going to have you retrieve the amulets for you and Tai to gain total control of your powers. It'll help everybody if you do that. Won't you?”  
However, Vee not being interesting in dating, ever, made her just take a step back in disgust. “Not for _you,_ ya filthy a-” Vee cut herself off. “Never. I'm not helping you. At all.”  
Shifter looked surprised at the raw hatred in the other's tone. “Hmm. Guess that doesn’t work.” They shrugged. “I’ll have to try _other_ tactics.” The purple haired person casually took out a normal kitchen knife, a small one at that, and Vee stopped dead. She was pretty sure her heart stopped too.  
Her breathing became short and shallow as Shifter stepped closer. Vee stumbled back, falling but scooting back until she wasn't up against the wall. She was sure an anxiety attack was nigh.  
Shifter smiled cruelly. “Good. So, if you don't want this in your throat, you'll do what I say. Is that clear?”  
Vee couldn't stop tears from streaming down her face. “I-I-”  
“ _Is that clear?_ ”  
“Y-ye-yes.”  
“Good.” They put the knife away and turned to leave, only stopping to say, “when you've calmed down, shout for me and I'll come help you get back up.”


	12. Introduction & Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of PTSD,

-Several Hours Later-  
Vee was pacing. She had calmed down fully only ten minutes ago, but she dared not call out Shifter’s name.  
_Magic. Magic._ Her mind kept circling around that, the mere idea that she was a magic-wielding being like Ray and Asha? She couldn’t process it.  
Vee looked up and saw the camera blink to life. _Dang._ Shifter would know she’s okay, and would be here any minute. She sat down with her legs criss-crossed and stared at floor.  
“Vee?”  
She looked up to see Shifter looking at her in concern. They extended a hand to Vee. “Here, let me help you.” Vee hesitated and noticed the weird yellow contact was gone, and the scaly (what she hoped was make-up) part of their face was faded.  
Vee slowly got up on her own. “What do you want?” She muttered softly. Her eyes darted around Shifter’s figure warily. “And where are my friends? My pet?”  
Shifter looked at Vee, expression strange and unreadable. “I only want what’s best for all of you. Honestly.” They looked around. “Your friends are safe. The snake, I can give to you soon.” Shifter walked past Vee to the bump. They did something and the ground fell away to reveal a shiny metal orb. Shifter picked it up and said. “Follow me, please. I would hate for you to choke yourself.” With that they glanced at Vee once more and walked out of the half-cell, leaving Vee with no choice but to follow.  
The place seemed to be a lab, but it was empty. All the other cells they past were empty, which led Vee to wonder where Saga, Tai, Asha and Ray were being kept. They would pass hallways and closed rooms, a maze with no end.  
Then, Shifter turned into one of the only open doors, Vee following. There were four other people in there, all similar-looking to Shifter, yet different.  
One of the men was slightly taller than the others with reddish-purple hair and definitely no scales on his face. He, like the others, had a lab coat on, but a red sash was hung over it and a medieval emblem was stitched on his coat.  
The closest of the men to them was slightly shorter than the first man, with a darker lab coat, glasses and blue-purple hair. A brain and glasses emblem was on his lab coat, and he wore blue striped necktie.  
The third man was the shortest, but that may have just been his slouching. He wore a plaid jacket instead of a coat, had dark purple hair, and eyeshadow. He had a clipboard and was jotting stuff down as the other three chatted.  
The last man was wearing a plain white lab coat, had bright purple hair, a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye. He looked like the older brother of the others, if anything. This one saw Shifter and Vee enter and smiled wider. “Morality! How are they doing?”  
Shifter, or rather, Morality, said plainly, “this one, Vee, she’s doing best. So I brought her.”  
The oldest man strode towards Morality and Vee. “Hi! Sorry we kidnapped you, this wouldn’t have worked out otherwise. You’ll be able to leave soon. But anyways, my name is Thomas. You’re Vee, right?”  
Vee nodded. “Y-yeah. Can you take this off, now?” she gestured to the metal choker and armbands.  
“Oh, yeah!” Thomas frowned. “I didn’t realize he did that to you. Morality, you can split now.”  
“Wait, _he?_ ” Vee questioned. “But Shif-Morality said they-them pronouns.”  
But when Vee turned to look at Morality, he was gone. In his place were two men, one with light purple hair, the other with the weird reptilian eye and scales with almost-black hair.  
“Damon, I can’t believe you told her we were a _them_!” The lighter-haired one said.  
“Well, it was fun, Patton. Stabbing people is fun, too.” Damon said.  
The reddish-purple haired one broke away from his conversation. “ _Stabbing?_ ” He said indignantly. He strode over and stared Damon is the face. “You’re not supposed to stab them! We’re supposed to be _helping_ them!”  
Damon shrugged. “I prefer stabbing, Roman. Besides, I didn't do it. I just threatened. Although, Vee certainly has something going on with knives.”  
The two remaining men walked over. The one with the tie spoke. “I watched the footage. It appears Vee has PTSD. I suggest no more weapons.” He glared pointedly at Damon. “Salutations, Vee. Let me introduce us.” The tie-wearing man gestured to the scale-ridden one. “This is Damon.” He then swept his hand to the one wearing a jacket around his neck. “That is Patton. Those two make up Thomas’ Morality. This,” he said, waving in the red-purple haired man’s direction, “is Roman. His counterpart is Virgil,” he said, putting a hand on the man with the jacket. “They are Creativity. And I am Logan, my opposite, called Ethan, is away, but together we make Thomas’ Logic.”  
“I don't exist,” Damon said casually.  
“Oh, and each of the opposites have their own trait fitting into their part of Thomas’ personality. Damon represents Deceit, Virgil is Anxiety, and Ethan is Doubt.” Logan rambled as the others rolled their eyes. Yet Vee was still on edge, her heart was racing, and she was hoping this was all just a bad dream.  
“W-why am I here?”  
Vee’s stuttered words broke through Logan’s speech with quite an impact. Each of the six men looked at her, and she tried to shrink into her jacket, until realizing that it was gone and a dark purple t-shirt was in its place.  
Thomas gave her a warm smile. “Vee, whatever Damon has told you, anything harmful, is a lie. He is literally Deceit. You are not a prisoner here, and I admit I won’t be letting him deal with you anymore. We are trying to help you unlock your powers. I guess I’ll tell you the story leading up to here from my point of view…  
“One day, I was visiting the school district, on a mission to find those with potential for powers. I visited your school last, and having found not a single child of interest, I wasn’t hopeful. I walked through the halls during the week, using my abilities and knowledge to find somebody, anybody to recruit.  
“I then once walked past your little group, near the end of the week. I was nearly overwhelmed with the amount of magical potential radiating from you. I couldn’t tell who exactly it was from, so I followed each of you when you were alone for a short time. I was astounded to find out that each one of you were able to learn or already using magic.  
“Then, before I could confront the five of you at school the next Monday, I noticed the leader of your group, Tai, was missing. I had only hoped it wasn’t anything major, so I eavesdropped to make sure she was fine. Then, after learning she was recovering safely, I couldn’t make any more careful decisions. The only choice was to capture you all the next time you were out in public together.”  
There was a silence after Thomas was done speaking, and Vee realized why quickly. THe other men, Roman, Logan, Patton, Damon and Virgil were gone. “What in the-” she said, cutting herself off for no real reason.  
Thomas sighed. “The others are part of my mind. Those were their physical forms, but now they have returned to nagging voices in the back of my mind. Vee, I’m guessing you’ll want to see your friends and pets?”  
“Y-yeah,” Vee said faintly. “Y-you… you’re Thomas Sanders, right?”  
He smiled. “How’d you guess?”  
Vee perked up a little at being right, her courage growing. “You do, uh, _Sanders Sides_ on YouTube, right? And _Cartoon Therapy_? I thought those were just you dressing up.”  
Thomas’ smile seemed to grow bigger and bigger. “I do dress up as Dr. Picani, but the Sides are actual parts of me. My personal power is willing them to appear for longer then most people can, and my side power is detecting other’s potential magic. That’s why I came to find you.” He started walking towards the door. “Come on, we can go see your friends if you want. But first, I’m guessing you’ll want your pets.” He walked out the door, and Vee followed, a little more willingly then she had followed Morality. At one point along the same hall, Thomas opened one of the lab doors and said, “stay there, please.” He came back with a couple of crates in tow, and disappeared again to come back with two more, and then once more.  
“What are you gonna do with those?” Vee asked. “How’re you gonna carry all of them?”  
Thomas reached into the room one last time and pulled out a wagon. “With this,” he said simply. He loaded the crates into the wagon and towed it behind him while he continued through the huge laboratory, which forced Vee to stand next to him. She walked nervously beside him in silence, until they came across a door reading, ‘Do Not Enter, Magical Forces Inside.’  
Thomas pushed through the door anyway, with Vee having to go through behind the wagon. She heard Ray shout, “Alright, Thomas, what do you have now, and where is Vee?!” Followed by the sound of crackling fire. Thomas got the wagon fully into the room and Vee quickly darted in.  
Thomas looked slightly panicked. “Ray, it’s okay, Vee is right here. Vee?” He looked at her as she came out from behind the wagon. She smiled a little at the sight of not only Ray, but Tai, Asha and Saga standing by her.  
Tai saw her first and tackle hugged her. “Vee! We were so worried, we’ve been together for a day, they wouldn’t tell us where you were!”  
Vee grunted as the rest of her friends suffocated her in a group hug. After a few minutes, they fell off of her, and Vee started noticing strange details. All of them were wearing the same outfit as her, a t-shirt and jeans, with slight differences. Vee saw Asha had a light pink shirt with a white symbol for what she assumed was wind on it. Saga had a green shirt with a magenta teardrop shape on it. Tai had a royal blue shirt with a yellow sun on it. And Ray had an orange shirt with a dark red fire symbol. Vee was willing to bet if she looked down at her shirt, she’d see an emblem on it.  
“A-are you guys okay?” Vee said, worry growing.  
Tai shrugged. “As fine as can be. Though I was looking forward to Asha’s birthday, personally, and the first day I would be allowed outside of my house.”  
Asha cut in, and for once a serious tone entered her voice. “Vee, we all woke up together. Where were you? And why weren’t you with us?”  
Thomas shrugged and answered for her. “Each of you were put under the care of one of my Sides. Saga with Logan, Tai with Virgil, Ray with Roman, Asha with Patton, and I made the mistake of assigning Damon to Vee. He separated Vee from you all and was… well, just a big jerk all around. I’m sorry, Vee.”  
“It’s okay.” _I think so at least._  
“Now, after you get what’s in these boxes, I want to tell you the exact reason your here and what’s gonna happen. But first, I think you’ll want what’s in the box.” Thomas handed each person a box, which they sat down and held, but gave Vee two of the crates. “Oh, and you guys- err, girls can open them.”  
The four freshmen carefully opened the crates, and were overjoyed and insanely relieved to find their pets in there. Somehow, even Vee’s Mississippi kite, named Nyx, was there, and didn’t attack any of the other animals. Nedele slithered along Vee’s neck and right arm happily while Nyx hopped around Vee, probably looking for wild prey in the grass.  
Vee looked over at the others, and saw Saga frown at her bird, Simon. “His wings are tipped in magenta. His wingtips used to be gray.”  
The others stopped playing with and petting the animals. “I thought it was my imagination that Rome had yellowish paws.” Ray looked down at her German Shepherd, which barked in response.  
Asha carefully inspected Ameri. “He kinda looks pinkish-brown now, and the white splotches look a bit like clouds. Ameri, you okay?” The rabbit squeaked happily, to which Asha shrugged and cuddled with it some more.  
Tai was still petting Topika, but now absentmindedly. “She’s amber. She was orange.”  
Vee looked down at her milk snake and kite. Now that she thought about it, both had darker hues, and both had vibrant purple eyes. Vee looked up at the only man in the room. “Thomas, what did you do to them?”  
Thomas smiled, but this time it was nervous. “I-I just wanted to help. They’ll help you now. Don’t worry about it.”  
Vee was surprised by what she did next. She stood up, Nyx on her shoulder and Nedele wrapped around her opposite arm, and glared at the purple-haired man. “ _What did you do to them_?” She spoke in a low, deadly calm tone. Vee felt a strange satisfaction when Thomas backed up nervously. “ _Answer me, Thomas._ ” She heard a strange echo to her voice, but didn’t particularly care right then.  
“I- Vee, I just- They can now, protect you, or help you, they just a bit of magic- please, c-calm down-”  
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned around to see Tai. Vee’s expression softened. “Vee, please calm down. You’re doing something, your scaring everybody.” Vee looked over Tai’s shoulder and saw Asha, Saga and Ray looking at her with looks of fear, unsureness and grimness. Vee looked down at her own body and saw black… _stuff_ coming off of her, like mist or vapor. She felt her hands start to shake, then her whole body.  
“ _W-what’s wrong with me_?” The echo to her voice wouldn’t leave. She felt Tai’s hand tighten on her shoulder, her kite bird nuzzled her cheek, and her snake looked at her with an almost worried expression. Vee fell to her knees, shaking worse. She felt tears sting her cheeks. “ _Help_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I created a bad side for Logan, called Ethan/Doubt.  
> Bug me about it in the comments, okay?
> 
> So, for an explanation, what if the Dark and Light Sides were to combine into the regular traits? That's the whole premise right here, so Morality is really Patton and Damon, Creativity is Roman and Virgil and so forth.


	13. Faint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings are the same as usual, I'm too tired to do them right.

Tai watched as her little sister confront Thomas with a grim determination. She wanted to stop her, pull her away. The animals were probably fine, Vee was probably overreacting.  
But then Tai watched as black vapor started appearing around Vee, collecting around her feet. It was dead silent when Vee said, “ _What did you do to them?_ ” her voice was dull purple with it’s resonance, contrasting from the vibrant violet color it usually was.  
The other three started backing up, and for once even Ray was freaked out. Tai stared at her friends and then her sister. With a quick fight in her mind, she strode over to Vee and put a hand on her shoulder. “Vee, please calm down,” she said, trying to keep the trembling out of her voice. “You’re doing something, you’re scaring them.” She let Vee see over her and watched as Vee looked down at the dark mist around her. She felt Vee’s body start to shake, harder and harder.  
“ _What’s wrong with me_?” Vee said, her voice distorted. Tai gripped Vee harder. Tears started pouring down the younger one’s face.  
“Vee?” She looked up at her older sister. Tai could see a helpless, terrified look on her face. “Vee, can I hug you?”  
Vee nodded, and Tai wasted no time wrapping her little sister in a tight embrace. She stood there for a long time, and opened her eyes a little to see the other three helping Thomas up. Eventually, Tai loosened her grip a little. “Are you okay, sis?” she said softly. Vee nodded numbly and let go of Tai. She looked smaller than usual, and seemed to be shrinking more anyway.  
“Jacket,” she mumbled, her voice once again violet. Tai put a hand on her shoulder briefly and walked over to Thomas. “Mr. Sanders, are you okay?”  
Thomas smiled a bit. “Call me Thomas. And yeah, I’m okay, just a little freaked out.” His voice was a sweet honey color.  
Tai was relieved. It wouldn’t have been good if the only way to get out of there had a heart attack or something. “Can we have our clothes back? Like, my bandanna, Ray’s vest and Vee’s jacket?”  
“Oh! Oh, yeah, I’ll be right back with that.” Thomas walked out the door, leaving it open, to retrieve the five freshmen’s clothes. He came back quickly, carrying the accessories they had worn to the movies. Rome barked at Thomas, his tail wagging happily.  
When Thomas left they took turns using the bathroom to get dressed in their normal clothes. As Tai wrapped her bandanna across her neck and tied it off, she stepped out of the bathroom, the last one to change. Saga’s magenta voice met Tai’s ears, closely followed by that of Ray’s electric yellow one. Tai sighed and walked over to the two, who both appeared to be arguing as calmly and quietly as possible.  
“Ray, breaking out isn’t a good idea. We don’t know where we are or what they want with us. We can ask Thomas or one of his Sides later,” Saga tried to reason with the temperamental redhead.  
“But that’s just it! What if the want us to make us, like, supervillains or something? They hurt Vee, for crying out loud, and now there’s something wrong with her. Do you really want to stay here and let them toy with us like puppets?”  
“I don’t believe that will happen, Ray, we have no proof something like that would happen-”  
“VEE IS PROOF!” Ray exploded. “They hurt her, we have no reason to trust them!” Ray at this point was shaking with anger. “Trying to believe them is how we will get killed. I say we break the hell out as soon as physically possible.”  
Tai stepped into the middle of the fight. “Ray, Saga, this isn’t getting us anywhere. You’re scaring the animals, and I don’t think Vee appreciates being used as an example.”  
Tai looked over at her little sister, who was once again in her fluffy dark purple jacket and was sitting with her legs tucked under her chin against a nearby wall. “Vee, are you okay?”  
The younger girl nodded, although Tai thought it was a bit absentmindedly. She saw Nedele slither across Vee’s shoulder and frowned. “Vee, I thought Nedele was brown… and only a foot long.” For indeed, Nedele was black with two yellow stripes going down her side. And he looked a lot longer than a foot.  
“Hmm?” Vee looked up. “What’d you say?” Vee’s gaze was a bit unfocused, but _just a bit _didn’t really assure Tai that her little sister was okay.  
As Tai was about to ask what was wrong, Vee’s eyes rolled into her head and she fell into the grass with a soft _thud_.__


	14. Almost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Pain and suffering from all ends of the writing spectrum.

Vee woke up in a strange room, yet again, and tried to get up. Immediately her head gave a spike of pain, and she held back a cry of pain. She instead muttered, “ow,” and settled on opening her eyes and only sitting up. She saw something that looked suspiciously like the room Tai had been sent to a couple weeks earlier, but blurred around the edges of her vision. “Where…”  
She saw the door open and Asha creep in. Vee watched as Asha squealed and started talking, but all she could hear was gibberish. Asha said one more nonsense phrase and went back out the room.  
As Vee started feeling more awake, the other four freshmen walked into the room, breathing sighs of relief and talking more gibberish yet excited words, although Vee heard somebody’s tone become rather serious. As it continued more and more, Vee said, “why are you guys talking so strangely?”  
Everybody stopped talking and Tai babbled a few confused-sounding words. Vee said, “I can’t understand you guys. Why are you talking so weird?”  
Suddenly Ray yelled and Saga held onto her as she fought towards the exit of the room. Asha quickly dashed out of the room, returning quickly with Thomas. Thomas muttered some more incoherent words, felt Vee’s forehead, and started checking what appeared to be a bunch of medical machines around them. He then scribbled something down and passed it Vee. It read: _Can you read this_?  
Vee nodded. “Yeah, I can read, I just can’t understand you guys.”  
The group sighed in relief while Thomas wrote another message. This one read, _We don’t know why you can’t understand us. We’re talking in English, I promise. You are too. Do you mind if I check your ears?_  
Vee shrugged. “I guess you can, if you want to. I just can’t understand you guys. And my head hurts.” She winced slightly as her head pounded again.  
Thomas conjured something out of a drawer and started checking her ears. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just ticklish. But when he got done, Thomas wrote another note. _There’s nothing wrong with you physically. It must have to do with your powers._  
Vee read the note and said, “I’d like for everyone but Thomas to get out, please. He’s the only one who can really help me with this.”  
The four healthy girls exchanged worried looks and babbled at Thomas. He said a few gibberish words at them and they left, very hesitantly. Thomas stood up and stared at Vee, and for the first time she noticed that he had a spot of color in his right eye that seemed to change and dance in the light. His brow furrowed and he grabbed a piece of paper and what looked like a mirror. He scribbled a message on the note and handed both items to the girl. Vee took them.   
The message wrote, _Take a look at yourself in the mirror. That should help us with this._  
So Vee did what she was told and held the mirror up to look at her reflection. It hurt a little to look at the mirror, but when she saw her own face, she dropped it onto her lap. Her eyes had been glowing a strong violet color. _What the heck?_ As she became more and more panicked, her breathing became shorter and faster and less useful.  
Vee felt a hand on her shoulder and on impulse grabbed it with her own. She was so used to her friends doing It to calm her down she didn't notice it was Thomas. But still, she started concentrating on her breathing, deep breathes, hold it, let let it out slowly. She blinked the tears out of her eyes. _It's okay, Vee. You're okay._  
As she started to calm down, Vee heard Thomas’ voice, and it was finally coherent. “Hey, Vee are you okay now? Vee? Oh shoot, you can't understand, what should I do?”  
Vee let a small laugh. “Yeah, Thomas, I'm okay now. Thanks.”  
Thomas breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.” He slowly pulled his hand from Vee’s grasp. “I don't know why you couldn't understand us. We could understand you. But your eyes aren't glowing anymore. That's something.”  
Vee smiled faintly. “Yeah. I guess it is.”  
*Read end notes  
Thomas cleared his throat nervously and got up. “I’m gonna guess you’ll want your friends back in here?”   
Vee shrugged. “I… I kinda want to be alone for a bit, if you don’t mind.”  
Thomas smiled. “Of course! I’ll let the others know, yeah, just call when your ready.” Thomas hurried out the door, leaving Vee alone, her own thoughts and worries the only thing keeping her from falling asleep. Oh, and her headache. That hadn’t gone away.  
Eventually her headache faded away and she slipped out of bed. She made her way over to the door and opened it slightly, rolling her eyes at the sight that greeted her. She wasn’t even surprised to see her friends waiting outside the door anxiously. She opened the door wider and walked out. “Hey, guys.”  
All four of the girls’ heads turned toward Vee, and suddenly Vee was crushed by hugs. For once, Vee didn’t protest, and just sunk into the warmth of her friends. After a few minutes, thought, Vee peeled herself away. “I’m guessing you missed me?” She said with a smirk.  
That fired up Ray a little too much. “Just a bit!” She exploded. “You’ve been out for three days! What the hell?!” The longer she went on, the hotter the air got. The three remaining girls all backed up. Vee felt sweat start to gather on the back of her neck.  
“Ray, I couldn’t control that. I’m sorry for scaring you.” Vee tried to keep her voice from betraying her fear.  
“SCARING ME?!” Ray exploded, sparks literally flying off of her. “I THOUGHT YOU WOULD DIE, THOMAS SAID YOU WERE IN A COMA!” She threw a fireball at Vee, who barely managed to dodge.  
Tai yelled over Ray’s screaming, “Ray, if you don’t calm down, Vee’s not the only one with a chance to die!”  
Ray stopped shouting and looked at Tai, fire dancing around her hands, the air heated to an almost unbearable temperature. Her eyes were glowing a bright orange, contrasting to the usual deep green. Once she looked at the unsure expression on Tai’s face, Ray faltered and the air cooled down, the fire in her hands dying.  
Vee slowly backed away, wishing she could just disappear. She was making her friends fight because of something she did, she was an awful person, she didn’t deserve to be friends with anyone, much less them. She blinked back tears. She was tearing her friends to pieces, _she needed to run_ -  
Vee flinched as Ray’s head turned back to her, even though her expression was worry and nervousness. Then she watched Ray’s expression turn to fear.  
“G-guys?” Ray looked at Vee, her eyes scanning the area. “Where’d Vee go?”  
Vee wanted to ask why Ray couldn’t see her, but hesitated. What if Ray just wanted to know so she could hurt Vee? She clenched her hands and ran down through the room, rushing to the door opposite to the room she had woken up in. She heard somebody shout, “she’s there!” but kept running. She rammed into the door, swinging it open, and dashed aimlessly through the lab, only pulling to a stop minutes later when she was hopelessly lost and was sure nobody could find her. She slid down the wall, breathing hard and fast, and felt tears stinging her cheeks. She grabbed her arms and dug her nails into them, sobbing.  
She sat there for a long time, curled into a ball and crying into her sleeves. She heard voices echo through the halls, never close enough to hear her sobbing, never close enough for her to move. Eventually, her jacket sleeves soaked in salty tears, she felt a hand on her shoulder, larger than her friends’ would be. She flinched away, pulling herself out of her shell and stumbling to her feet.  
However, her stance loosened slightly when she saw Thomas there, his eyes a light blue with a matching polo, and an expression beyond worried etched on his face. His face filled with relief upon seeing the young girl and he hugged her tightly. “Vee, please don’t do that again, we were really worried!” He let go of her, and she saw the glasses on his face and the lavender hair.  
“You’re n-not Thomas, you’re, uh…” Vee stuttered. She searched for the right name. “You’re Patton, right?”  
The figment of Thomas chuckled. “Yeah, kiddo, I am. Thomas asked me, Logan and Roman to help him search.” The freckled man shrugged. “I dunno why he didn’t ask Virgil, I think he’s working on a special project or something with Ethan and Damon.” Patton put a hand on Vee’s shoulder. “Let’s get back to the others, okay?”  
Vee shrugged the hand off. “I-I don’t know. What if Ray gets mad at me again? And-”  
“Shhh.” Patton cut her off with an understanding smile. “She won’t. Let’s go.”  
\----  
Vee and Patton walked up to the door. Vee heard a few small murmurs and at least one person pacing. “I’m gonna kill myself, on second thought, Patton.”  
Patton smiled nervously. “Hey, kiddo, don’t say that. I’m sure Ray won’t hurt you. And if she does,” he added, “I’ll be right here for you.”  
Vee took a deep breath and pushed the door open. All of the girls looked up, and Ray rushed over wordlessly, trapping Vee in a crushing hug.  
“I’m so sorry!” Ray spoke into Vee’s ear. “I was stupid, I wasn’t thinking, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you…” Vee rubbed Ray’s back soothingly as she continued to rant. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Patton talking to Tai, Asha and Saga. Saga said something with a serious expression that Vee couldn’t catch, and the four ran off.  
Vee’s eyebrows furrowed, and she shook Ray. The latter kept sobbing into Vee’s shoulder, apologizing. “Ray,” Vee hissed. She shook the taller girls shoulders again. Ray raised her head, wiping off her tears.  
“S-sorry, Vee.” The elder girl took a deep breath. “What do you want?” She asked.  
Vee looked around and said, “Patton talked to the other three, then they all ran off. I think there’s something bad happening. Really bad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Took a break right here to listen to two girls have a conversation about clowns and going to clown class right before a play.
> 
> Okay! So, this is the last chapter I have written out currently, so expect a wait. I think I can get a chapter out within the next month or so? I dunno. But anyway, this chapter was kinda hard to write, I think I'm slowly killing Vee. But that can't happen, I want to make her a vampire ~~jk I'm not doing that please don't kill me~~.  
>  Hah, believe it or not, we're not even at the main climax yet! In fact, I still have a huge thing I want to get through, something (probably) nobody's gonna expect.
> 
> ~~Gosh dangit how am I supposed to be a voice actor if I'm writing all the time? And how am I supposed to be a voice actor when nobdy else can help me with it and I'm not old enough to get a job? Life sucks sometimes y'know?~~


	15. Author's Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not planning the end, just wanted opinions.

So.  
I want to ask something.  
Do you guys want this to continue?  
I'm just wondering, really. This has been long, and I haven't even revealed the climax or anything. And I might not get the next chapter out until next month. Do you guys really want me to finish this? You could move on to other material, and this isn't very popular.  
Not that I'm encouraging or discouraging reading this. I just want to know whether or not it's worth it to continue this. So please, comment whether or not you want me to see this through.  
This will only end if you guys don't care about it anymore. If I continue, this chapter will be deleted.

EDIT: Also, I'm planning to write a Warrior Cats fanfic, would you be interested in that?


	16. Goodbye (For Now)

I am canceling this fanfic until further notice.

Why?

I just don't have the time. I have one or maybe two more chapters finished, and I started school again recently, whilst working on another, bigger personal project. I'm not sure when or if this will start up again. I am so, so sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> Update: Okay, my hoodie is done, and I'm so happy with the result! Thank you for any support you give, and I'd love to hear you're thoughts in the comments! Especially with this new chapter :). I think I might post again in 4-5 days.
> 
> New Update: AAAAA okay I'm good. But seriously, anxiety is the worst. Any who, I'm done with all I've written so far, really. I'll post again within the next month, no guarantees. Thank you for all the support you give, 65 views may not seem like a lot to you, but it's the world to me.  
> My YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNsdaIErtG7FXB5lZK_lEQQ


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